Creating Memories With Jesus
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach."
-Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol
Dear High Street Family,
Do you have a memory of Christmastime that stands out to you?
Perhaps, it’s with family?
Maybe it’s during your childhood?
Or maybe more recently, in a home or with friends?
You know, so much of our delight and felt-duty at Christmas is wrapped around memory.
Watch last Sunday's sermon "Unexpected Glory" from our Home for the Holidays series
Memory is one of the most powerful aspects of our humanity. Through memory the past revisits us, the present is captured, and the future is framed.
Some even say our memory makes up who we are.
Jesus says to his followers, “The Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf]...
He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you” (John 14:26).
Our memory is not only designed by a Good Father, but through the Holy Spirit, memory is something God can influence, renew, shape, and inform.
Because He is all-present, Jesus is literally in our memories whether we see Him or not.
And because He is all-powerful, He’s able to reveal the treasures hidden in our memory banks and also heal and restore any woundedness or trauma in our memories, too.
It’s profound, then, that only three verses earlier He promises to “make home” with any of us who would make room for Him, and, that central to that work, would be His influence in our memories.
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23, our theme verse for Home for the Holidays).
A powerful way we make home with Jesus is by allowing Him conscious access to our memories.
If we’re experiencing nostalgia this Christmas season, delighting with Him in what makes that ol’ thing wonderful.
If we’re missing a friend or family member this Christmas, speaking with Him about the gift of their life, what was beautiful, and what questions we still have.
If we’re anticipating moments with family or friends this Christmas, sharing our hopes, expectations, and concerns with the One who made us and them.
By doing this, we begin to perceive the One who not only “made home” with us on earth at Christmas, but we invite Him to “make home” in our past, present, and future now.
This openness to the Holy Spirit in our memory shapes our perceptions, fuels our actions, and creates new, treasured memories with Jesus that we'll carry with us into eternity.
In light of this, on Sunday, we’ll study Jesus' birth-story, and the giant oversight of the busyness of Bethlehem that so missed the Holy One and that He was born in an animal’s trough!
And invite His presence to reveal what it means for us to “make room” for Him in our Christmas celebrations this year.
May our lives more and more “make home” for Him who is God-with-us ,
Pastor Dave