The Story of Jesus' Birth from Memory

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart!"

~Luke 2:19

Early on in the fall I decided to memorize the story of Jesus' birth from the book of Luke so that I could present it to my family on Christmas as a gift to them. I planned to memorize Luke 1:26-38 and Luke 2:1-20, so I printed them out and tucked the pages in my Bible so that I would review them each time I did my Bible reading. Over the next few months I took the pages out to memorize small sections at a time. To be honest, there were a few times that I thought I would just forget about it and not do it. Thankfully my husband encouraged me to continue when I began to feel discouraged about not being able to memorize it all.

On Christmas Eve I recited the accounts of Jesus birth from Luke to my family during our celebration at my parents house. I am so thankful that I did not give up or chicken out. (Thank you Tommy for listening to me say it over and over again.) I am thankful that I am able to memorize and meditate on God's Word. Even though I planned it as a gift to my family I realize now that I received so much more by hiding God's Word in my heart. Because it was in my heart and on my lips during the Advent season I feel like I have a new and fresh understanding of the whole story, even though I have heard it many times over the years.

In the years to come I would like to be able to tell this story from my memory to my own little family. I think it would be such a special tradition to recite as a family the birth story of Jesus as we sit by the lighted Christmas tree on Christmas morning.