During the Christmas season things are so busy that while I look at all the cards that come from friends, they go by pretty fast. At this point in January I like to get them out and read them again. The pictures are so beautiful and the sentiments so often meaningful. I enjoy the short attached notes and see in my mind the faces behind the signatures. I especially enjoy the Christmas letters. It is a chance to catch up on the extended family of people I like. Even though they are generally not prayer requests, they often become that in my mind. It gives me a chance to name in my prayers people I rarely or perhaps never get to see in person. I have known people who have made sending cards a ministry. In our instant message online world, letters and cards are becoming increasingly rare. An elderly person of my acquaintance saves her Christmas cards and devotes a week to each card and showers it with prayers and sometimes notes throughout the year. It seems like an excellent idea, but so far I just use January for such reflection. I do have other cards that I have saved especially from loved ones. I don’t have a specific plan for remembering them, but when I run across them in my things they provide a warm and almost living memory. There is so much in scripture about remembering both for human kinds and for God. In Exodus 2 we read “The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Out of their slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites and God took notice of them.” Great possibilities happen when we remember God and each other, and even greater possibilities when God remembers us.