Images help us remember.
Memory helps mark importance.
Why do we keep pictures, mementoes, holidays, and monuments?
Watch our Truth in Two to find out (full text below).
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Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat, EBay
FULL TEXT
The word “imagination” comes from the word for “image”— creating a mental picture. Mental pictures have a way of sticking in our memory to remind us what is good or bad, right or wrong. Creating a mental picture of right and wrong is the basic message of Lois Lowry’s book Number the Stars. The story takes place during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. In one scene, a young Christian woman wants to protect her Jewish friend. The Christian girl rips a gold chain from around her neck which bears the Star of David; an emblem marking one as a Jew. The girl clenches the star in her fist moments before Nazi soldiers arrive to search for her Jewish friend. She clenches it so tightly that, by the time the soldiers have left, an impression of the Star of David is imprinted in her palm.
A teacher who had read the book to her class passed on the following story to the author. On the day the teacher read that particular chapter, she had brought to class a chain and Star of David like the one described in Lowry’s book. As she read the chapter students passed the chain around the class. While the teacher read the story she noticed that one student after another pressed the star into his or her palm, making an image. The class’s imagination was motivated by an image.
Images keep memories alive. We observe holidays so that we never forget past ideas, people, and events. Hebraic-Christian memories are kept by feasting, singing, dancing, or erecting monuments. Jesus left Christians the image of His death, burial, and resurrection when He said, “Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you remember me until I return.” Images fire our imaginations making sure we never forget what and who is most important.
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking Truth wherever it’s found.