The story of the Titanic was foremost in the news at the turn of the century. The 100th anniversary of her sinking was coming up, and movie makers were filming version after version of the infamous event. James Cameron went even further. He discovered the actual wreckage at the bottom of the sea and filmed part of his movie at the actual site.
The old ship wasn’t what she used to be. For the film, that was part of the charm. He used the scenes of the battered ship to evoke a sense of grandeur, the past decayed into the present, showcasing how far the beauty of a long-ago age had slipped irretrievably into a time that could no longer be grasped. It was gone, only a memory still living in one elderly woman’s mind.
In a scene early in the movie, the character Rose looks into a mirror recovered from the bottom of the sea. It’s an item she recalls from that long-ago time. She remembers her young face in the reflection, but she sees her aged one. She wasn’t what she used to be.
We are like that. The lives we led before coming to Christ are relics of the past. We don’t recognize ourselves in them any longer. They are gone, only a memory. One thing doesn’t change, however, and that’s our promise from the Lord.
Psalm 105:8 reassures us:
“He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations.”
In Cameron’s visualization of Rose’s story, the ship was decimated, and all the things Rose remembered were tattered remnants of what she had known. One thing hadn’t changed. She still loved Jack, the young man she had met aboard the ship. He’d given his life that she could live, and he was as vivid in her thoughts as the day she’d watched him slip beneath the ocean, lost to her forever.
God’s promise given to us through salvation rings true no matter how life changes around us. As the years swirl, we become different people, our experiences forming us as surely as the Titanic’s time on the ocean’s floor has changed the magnificent behemoth into the undersea structure she is today.
One thing never changes. God’s love for us is always the same. We can close our eyes and feel him with us. Even when we don’t see him and can’t seem to find him, we can trust him to remember his promises unto us, even unto the thousandth generation.
When God looks into our hearts, he sees us exactly as he remembers us, his children, redeemed by his touch, and made holy in him.
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