Ex 32:7-14 / Jn 5:31-47
There’s a fair amount of gentle jesting among older people about their “senior moments” when memory temporarily fails them. But if truth were told, it isn’t only our senior citizens who have problems with remembering; it’s all of us. And it’s not just a matter of forgetting where we put the car keys or what time we’re due at the dentist. We forget the big stuff, like what our lives are supposed to be about, what matters and what doesn’t.
We get a good look at that very thing in today’s reading from the book of Exodus. Moses had been away communing with God for only a few days, when the Israelites got restless, forgot all the Lord had done for them across many years, liberating them from Egypt and guiding them through the desert ever since. They forgot it all and instead crafted for themselves a golden calf to worship. Talk about “losing it”!
Moses was astonished at their foolishness and their affront to God, but he knew something about God that they ought to have known but didn’t. He knew that God loved them and loves every one of us, not just on our good days, but on our bad days as well. And unlike us, God never forgets his loves.
Trust that, and when, inevitably, you make mistakes, don’t be afraid to turn to him. He’s waiting for you as he waited for them.