Even though I have no memory of this photo session, I still love the picture. It's a photograph of John and based on the photo he's also too young to remember.
Tonight, I asked John if he could recall his first memory and he said, “I remember that my dad put me on a horse.”
I said, “No you don’t. Give me a real memory.” Then he said, “I remember my 3rd birthday… three candles, a birthday cake, and something brown. I'm not sure where the 'brown' comes from... Memories are weird because the details tend to change."
My first memory was the day my parents brought my baby brother home. I was four years old, and I remember getting into trouble because my parents caught me peeking into the baby’s bassinet during naptime.
How about you? Can you recall your first memory? How accurate is your recollection? Do you remember the details?
Our earliest memories are a collection of vague neuron snapshots stored in the miraculous space of our brains. Personally, as I recollect my first memory, I see a room with a bassinet, but I do not see a baby. I remember various things in my room, like blocks, a Burl Ives record spinning on a record player, and clown pictures on the wall. I do not remember napping.
Our memories become clearer as we age, then with the passage of time, they fade away. We store up memories because we need them in the future. The three main types of memory are sensory, short-term, and long-term. Sensory memory resides in our subconscious; stirred by our senses… sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. For example, has the sound of music sent you back in time, or has a familiar scent retrieved something specific? Studies show that a mother’s scent calms a distressed baby, and familiar music stirs dementia patients' memory. In short, the gift of remembrance comes from God.
The Holy Spirit fans the flame of recollection…
John 14:25-29 – “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.”
Scripture proves Scripture:
John 24:1-8 – “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words…”
God keeps His Promises:
Ephesians 2:8-10 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Hebrews 8:12 – “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
1 Chronicles 16:15 – “Remember his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations."
1 Corinthians 13:11-12 – "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now, we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."
Psalm 103:13-14 – “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust."
God remembers we are dust and he understands our forgetfulness. Therefore, he fans the flame of recollection to stir forever memories of everything he has done in the past, what he is doing now, and what he promises to do in the future. God never changes and as Christians, we are confident in his ability to remind us about everything we need to remember.
Remember this… you are loved, and you are always in my prayers.
In Christ, Cheryl