Port Townsend is a small town in Washington State. Part of the town sits on a bluff, while the other part of the town is on the edge of beautiful Puget Sound. The terrain around Port Townsend is wild and rugged, with heavily timbered hillsides and deep gullies full of rhododendrons that make the early summer lovely with its masses of bloom.
One resident of Port Townsend, Camilla Pryer, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, a disease that brings forgetfulness of even the most basic knowledge. Today we know it is not a rare disease; you probably know or have heard of someone who has been so sadly stricken. Doctors estimate that over thirty percent of men and women over the age of eighty-five are affected with it.
Camilla awakened sometime during the night, found her purse and wandered out of the house in the darkness. In the morning when her husband discovered she was missing, he called the Port Townsend police. They searched for her for several hours. When she was not found by 11 a.m., the fire department joined the search and eventually launched a full-scale effort with two other fire districts’ search-and-rescue units. An Army National Guard helicopter was also called in to search the nearby waterways. Town residents also volunteered in large numbers and scoured the town for Camilla.
When all these efforts proved fruitless, a pair of search-and-rescue dogs were set on Camilla’s trail near her house at 7 p.m. After a brief search, they found her a hundred feet away in thick underbrush. The searchers concluded that she had stumbled, fallen and crawled into the underbrush which was so thick that searchers had not considered it a possibility. She had spent over eighteen hours cowering in the underbrush before she was rescued.
Alzheimer’s is a crippling disease where those afflicted lose the ability to remember. The whole human race is afflicted with a crippling disease called SIN. Sin is the reason that people don’t want to remember that they have been created by a God who loves them and longs to have fellowship with them.
A Bible verse says, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom. 1:2828And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1:28)). All the wickedness and sin in this world are proof of the fact that men have forgotten God and chosen to live as though He didn’t exist.
If you have forgotten God and are living without Him, it is not too late to change. He has invited you to return to Him. You may bow your heart this moment and confess that you are a sinner and need the Savior to cleanse you from all your sin.
There was a huge effort to find Camilla and to bring her home again, and God has made every effort to find you and to bring you back to Himself. The Lord is “long-suffering...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)). On the cross, the Lord Jesus made the supreme sacrifice to save us; He truly could have done no more.
Don’t remain in the darkness of forgetfulness and unbelief. You may come to Jesus, who said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:1212Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)). However, if you choose to live without God, in “spiritual Alzheimer’s,” be warned that there are bitter consequences. Because you did not desire the knowledge of His ways, you may find yourself overcome by sin and living a life of sorrow and sadness. And an even darker and more serious result is that those who forget God have a real hell waiting for them when they pass through death’s door. God’s Word gives the warning: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa. 9:1717The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. (Psalm 9:17)).
Will you go on in forgetfulness of God? Or will you come by faith to the One who loves you and wants you?