LEST WE FORGET (Rudyard Kipling)
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung
battle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings
depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The last line of this poem is now well entrenched as the line of remembrance for veterans and war heroes, commemorated and remembered annually on veterans day or days of remembrance of war.
Its original meaning however, was meant to dive much deeper, a gratefulness to God, a line of remembrance for the entire panoply of life.
All of us have remembrances and memories that may have their edges warped by the passage of time, yet are crystal clear in our minds. Battles fought, dire circumstances that we have been delivered from.
It is important that we do not forget and that these memories are not relegated to the dusty shelves of unremembered time in our lives. Hence the call, never to forget.
The Israelites were guilty of this very thing, as they traversed years in the wilderness, saw the glory of the Lord, yet forgot all that He had done for them in the past. They forgot.
In our lives, let this be a call to remember our individual history as a testament to His faithfulness, lest we too forget.
