Deuteronomy 4

What's In A Knot?

Lest thou forget. Deuteronomy 4:9.

I wonder how many of you tie knots on your handkerchiefs to remind yourselves of something you particularly want to remember? Years ago, people did this often. It is quite a good plan so long as you don't forget what the knot represents! Did it ever strike you why people did this? What made them think of adopting that special way of reminding themselves, and when did they begin to do it?

The idea is more than five thousand years old, and it came to us from China. About three thousand years before the birth of Christ, the Emperor Tschang Ki of China invented the art of writing. Before that date all the great events in the kingdom were commemorated by knots on cords, and the ancient history of China is preserved for us in this way. Of course when writing was introduced the Chinese gave up that way of recording memorable happenings, but the custom has come down to us in the knots we make on handkerchiefs to represent the things we wish to remember.

Now I think some of us would require a great many more knots on our handkerchiefs than we put there.

In fact we would need so many knots that we should have to keep a handkerchief sachet on our persons with a knot in each corner of every handkerchief. Why should we need that? Just because we forget so many things we ought to remember.

1. Some of us have an unusual habit of leaving our belongings lying about for somebody else to pick up and put away. The result is that when we want them again, they very often can't be found, and the whole house is turned upside down and the whole household, including ourselves, made uncomfortable. Of course it doesn't matter for ourselves, because we deserve to suffer a little inconvenience, but it is rather hard on the other people.

There is a remarkable fact which perhaps you have noticed we don't forget the things we want to remember. If your father told you he was going to take you to Peter Pan or a cricket match tomorrow, or if a friend sent you an invitation to a particularly happy party next week, would you forget? I fancy you would be thinking and talking about it most of the time till then. And why should you forget those other matters?

2. But there are many things we forget besides the things we leave lying about, and among them are the kindnesses we receive from others.

There was a boy once whose father died when he was a baby, and whose mother worked very hard to feed him and clothe him and send him to a good school so that he might have a chance in life. He was a good boy, and he worked hard and became a successful young man. But his mother had ruined her health by hard work and starvation and she grew very ill. When she lay dying her son came to see her and he was so sorry to see her in such pain and weakness that he put his arms round her and said, “Oh, mother, what a good mother you have been to me!” And his mother looked into his face and said, “Do you know, my boy, it is the first time you have ever told me that?”

We are much too ready to take for granted all that our fathers and mothers do for us, and I think it would do us good sometimes just to sit down and count one by one the things they do even in one day.

3. And then all of us are far too ready to forget the kindnesses we receive from God. If we tried to count them, we should have to go on till the very end of our lives and after. King David once tried to make a list of them in one of his Psalms, and here it is: (1) “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities”; (2) “Who healeth all thy diseases”; (3) “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction”; (4) “Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies”; (5) “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things.” And if you look well at these headings I think you will see that each of them contains a great many things. We are all very ready to grumble if things go wrong, but we forget the benefits we receive daily.

There was once a good king in Spain called Alfonso XII. Now it came to the ears of this king that the workers at his court forgot to ask God's blessing on their daily meals, and he determined to rebuke them. He invited them to a banquet which they all attended. The table was spread with every kind of good thing, and the boys ate with evident relish; but not one of them remembered to ask God's blessing on the food.

During the feast a beggar entered, dirty and ill-clad. He seated himself at the royal table and ate and drank to his heart's content. At first the workers were amazed, and they expected that the king would order him away. But Alfonso said never a word.

When the beggar had finished he rose and left without a word of thanks. Then the boys could keep silence no longer. “What a despicably mean fellow!” they cried. But the king silenced them, and in clear, calm tones he said, “Boys, bolder than this beggar have you all been. Every day you sit down to a table supplied by the grace of your Heavenly Father, yet you ask not His blessing nor express to Him your gratitude.”

I'm afraid we are all rather like these workers. Not only for food, but for raiment, and home, and life, and friends, and joy, and all His other benefits we often forget to thank our Heavenly Father.

4. And some people go even further. They forget God altogether. They are so busy with other matters that they hardly ever give Him a thought. And that is the most foolish thing of all, because we can never be really happy away from Him. God has given us everything we possess. Best of all He has given us His own Son. And the very least we can do is to remember Him always, and give ourselves back to Him to love and serve Him.