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SOMETHING TO
REMEMBER HIM BY
We like to remember the accomplishments ofour fellow human beings. We set up philanthropies and
foundations named after great individuals in the hope that what they've done won't Jade like the
proverbial blade ofgrass. But there's one unique memorial that honors someone who's still alive-and
participating in this living memorial can change your life!
H
uman beings have tradition–
ally honored men and
women who make signifi–
cant contributions to the human
family. We remember George
Washington's birthday, name air–
ports after John F. Kennedy, build
memorials to Abraham Lincoln,
and put Queen Elizabeth's picture
on currency.
But there is an individual who's
done far more for mankind than
any of the great or famous people
we commonly recognize; someone
who's a greater inventor, a rtist, hu–
manitarian and philanthropist than
any of the human beings we nor–
mally honor. And yet most of the
time we fail to properly appreciate
and remember all that he's contrib–
uted to the human race.
Just who is this powerful and tal–
ented individual who's given us so
much? By now you've probably
guessed: H e's the Creator and
Maker of this universe- the one
who's done more for mankind than
all the Nobel prizewinners and great
men who have ever lived; the one
who took the time and trouble to
make us and everything around us!
We like to remember men, but
God wants to be remembered, too -
not for reasons of ego, but for a very
different reason. And God has set
up His own memorial to that end.
People usually don ' t get to decide
what kind of memorial they'll have
after they're dead. But God is a live,
and He's decided what His memo–
rial is to be. I t's not justa few words
carved in stone or written on parch–
ment somewhere, but a living, dy–
namic reminder of what He has
16
by
Elbert Atlas
done in the past, what He's doing
now, and what He's going to do in
the future.
This memorial to God is the Sab–
bath day. It 's a memorial to Him,
but also a generous gift to human–
ity.
Mark 2:27 tells us: "The sab–
bath was made forman."
His Past Gifts
In Genesis, the first chapter, God
reveals Himself as the Creator and
Giver of all good things: " In the
beginning God created the heaven
and the earth." There's an awful lot
contained in that short statement–
mankind is only now beginning to
scratch the surface of the complex
and wonderful world God put to–
gether. Think about it. Everything
you see around you, from the gigan–
tic and ancient sequoia to the small–
est and short-lived gnat , was
designed, given life and brougbt
into balance with the rest of the in–
credibly complex environment by
the great Creator God. God's fan–
tastic
magnum opus
includes the
stars, the sun, and this fioating
greenhouse we call the ea rth that
goes hurtling through space in orbit
around the sun.
It
includes our
weather patterns, our oceans, and
a ll the teeming life forms that in–
habit this planet.
Now if a person or a company
had done what God did-developed
a fiy, or a bird , or a tree, for ex–
ample- how much publicity do you
think they'd waflt to receive? But
God humbly summa ri zes these
mind-bending accomplishments in
justa few paragraphs in the book of
Genesis. And after that brief sum-
mary, He inspired these words to be
wri tten: "On the seventh day God
ended his work which he had made;
and he rested on the seventh day
from all his work which he had
made. And God blessed the seventh
day, and sanctified it: because that
in it he had rested from a ll his work
which God created and made"
(Gen. 2:2-3).
Now why did God insert a day of
rest into this seven-day cycle of cre–
at ion? He could have rested on the
first day. or the fifth. He cou ld have
ended the cycle at six days. But God
inserted an extra day in which He
did nothing in the way of creating.
So why the Sabbath? What is it
for? Just this: The seventh day is an
integral part of the same process of
creation.
It
symbolizes the fact that
God is
sti/1 creating- the
crowning
part of H is creation is s till in–
complete. And the Sabbath day is a
memorial lo that creation process.
As a reminder and memorial of
creation, it shows us that God is still
the Creator and the Life-giver, and
that His process
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creation for us is
not finished. The Sabbath reminds
us that it is God's intention to give
us physical life now as human
beings and life eternal later on as
spirit beings. So the Sabbath is a
reminder of a life-producing se–
quence that is as yet incomplete.
In the account of Adam and Eve,
God said of the epítome of His cre–
ation, humanity: " Let us create man
in our image, after our likeness–
let's make him like us."
Well , people are certainly not like
God now. We might have the gen–
eral form and shape of God, and we
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1978