Anniversaries

Facebook reminds me which of my 'friends' has a birthday this week. The French helpfully call birthdays 'anniversaire', which makes the point that anniversaries happen just once a year.
In our family, we try to mark our birthdays in significant ways, without being extravagant. There is always so much to look back on from the past year and the whole series of years, in which we want to reflect on our lives together.
The Israelites were told to mark their important national life with anniversaries. “In honour of the Lord your God, celebrate the Passover each year in the early spring, in the month of Abib, for that was the month in which the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Eat it with bread made without yeast. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, as when you escaped from Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you departed from Egypt.' (Deuteronomy 16.1,3-4)
Their identity as a nation was rooted in their having been slaves who were miraculously liberated by the Lord their God. Remembering how this happened needed to be deeply written in their nation's DNA. The events in the time of Moses took place years before, but they are still recalled and re-enacted at each annual Passover celebration.
As followers of Jesus, we too need to recall what the Lord has done for us. Our identity is similarly marked by an event from long ago - the death of Jesus outside the walls of Jerusalem. Perhaps as Jesus knew we would easily forget, he told us to 'do this in remembrance of me' every time we take bread and wine to remember Him. This repeated 'anniversary' helps us to know who we are are whose we are.
How do you recall all that Jesus has done for you?
Best wishes,
Richard