In a previous post, I shared a Christmas memory of Becca, our daughter. I want to relate my favorite Christmas story of her. It was our first, or maybe second, Christmas in Owosso. Becca would have been two or three. After the Christmas Eve service, we had turned out the lights, locked the doors, and were heading for home. As usual, we were leaving through the door by the kitchen, but we couldn’t find Becca. Now, that year there was a Christmas tree in the fellowship hall with a little nativity scene beneath it. Becca had quietly slipped into the darkened fellowship hall. When I peaked in, I saw a picture, forever imprinted on my heart, of a little girl kneeling down and cradling the baby Jesus in her arms. “Good night Jesus . . . and Merry Christmas,” she said as she gently kissed him and laid him back down.
Two times in Luke it says of Mary that she “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She had tucked away, in her mind’s curio box of special memories, a couple of treasured snapshots of her boy. She treasured and she pondered. How like a parent to remember in vivid detail scenes from long ago that bring a sense of joy and wonder to the heart. When I saw Becca, I was all at once overjoyed and saddened. I was overjoyed for the obvious reason. Yet, it was tinged with a sadness that she will one day grow up. That there will be forces which will conspire against her compelling her to forsake Jesus instead of holding Him in her heart. That one day she will no longer be so innocent. That one day . . . But I stop myself. God will take care of all the “one days” to come in her life, just as He took care of those of Jesus. But for now I will hold that memory and treasure it in my heart. It’s a reminder of Heaven where all innocence will be restored and all fear will be cast out by perfect love. It’s a reminder of the incredible blessings of God. It’s a memory of God’s love. And, for me, it’s a memory of God’s Son who didn’t stay a baby but grew to be a man and my Savior.
Why not take a moment to open the box of treasured Christmas memories of your children or loved ones? As you remember them, thank God for His goodness in giving you the gift of memories and special people.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:19&20
Chris Higgins 