Tobit 12:16-22: in context

When Raphael reveals that he is an angel sent by God, Tobit and Tobias fall on their faces in fear. Do not be afraid, he tells them; peace be with you; bless God forever. I came not by any favor of my own but by the will of your God. Give God thanks, for I am ascending to him who sent me; and write in a book all the things that have happened. Then he is gone from their sight, and they praise God, confessing his great and wonderful works.

Among the angel's parting words is a simple instruction easy to pass over: write in a book all the things that have happened. Alongside the call to give thanks and bless God, Raphael tells them to record what God has done, to set it down so it will not be forgotten. There is wisdom in this pairing of thanksgiving and remembering. We are quick to forget the works of God in our lives, the answered prayers, the rescues, the providences, the mercies. In the moment, we are struck by them; but memory fades, and the wonder that moved us to thanks dims with time, until we can hardly recall the things that once amazed us, and our gratitude fades with the memory. Raphael's counsel is to record God's works, to write them down, so that we remember, and so that our thanksgiving does not fade with our memory. This is a practice worth taking up. To keep some record of the ways God has acted in our lives, the prayers he has answered, the times he has helped and provided and rescued, is to build a storehouse of remembered mercies that fuels ongoing gratitude and steadies us in hard times. When we forget what God has done, we grow anxious and ungrateful, as though he had never acted; when we remember, recorded and kept before us, we are moved again to thanks and reassured of his care. Bless the LORD, my soul, the psalmist says, and do not forget all his benefits; but we do forget, unless we take some care to remember. Raphael told them to write it in a book; and the discipline of recording and remembering God's works keeps alive the thanksgiving that forgetting would let die.

Do I let the memory of God's works in my life fade with time, so that my gratitude fades with it, growing anxious and ungrateful as though he had never acted, or can I take up Raphael's counsel to record and remember what God has done, building a storehouse of remembered mercies that keeps my thanksgiving alive?