Memory

Remembering Jesus in Memory Care – Part One

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And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them say, “This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 23:19 ESV

While we sing, she keeps her eyes closed, though a tiny bit of a smile forms on her lips. The lady to her right is soundly asleep, with her head slumped forward, but the man on her right sings softly along, “Jesus Loves Me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so…”

 About halfway through the dozen songs that we sing that day, in the memory care unit, she looks up and begins joining in. Then, after I close in prayer, she is delighted when I offer her my hand saying, “Good morning, Kate! God bless you! I’ll be back next week, Lord willing and….,” then I pause to let her fill in the words: Kate smiles and chimes in, “And the crick don’t rise!”

The greatest loss in memory care wards, is more than the memory of the residents. The deepest issue is that most of them are forgotten by everyone else. But Jesus remembers them, and He calls some of us to follow HIm into memory care ministry, I know there are difficult days, and times when it looks pointless. Maybe you might ask God if there isn’t some easier job that He could send you to do. What about the hungry children in Africa, the local crisis pregnancy center, or medical missions to South America? While each of those ministries matters to God, He has chosen to place you and I in a place where less volunteers go than to some of the poorest mission fields on earth. Jesus’ plan is for us to reach out in His name, and it all begins just as His ministry did when He called His disciples by name and today He asks us to remember the names of each person that He sends us to!

He Knows Where You Are!

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Isaiah 49:16

Have you sometimes felt that God has forgotten where you are or doesn’t understand what you are going through? You are not alone! Lots of people in the Bible felt like that. For example, just what was Adam thinking when he tried to hide from God in the garden? Did he think maybe God didn’t know every nook and cranny of His own creation? Abraham was regularly reminding God not only where he was but of the promise that he would have a son. When Gideon was visited by an angel he had questions as well

,” And Gideon said to him, ‘Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? ‘ ” Judges 6:13

Does that question sound familiar in your own life. Does it seem you would like to say with Martha,

“If you had been here my brother would not have died!” John 11:21

But God has not forgotten us! He knows exactly where we are, what is happening and how we feel. If you are going through deep waters today as you read these words, don’t give up or become bitter. God’s promise to us is that he has engraved us on the palms of His hands. Then if we pause to think we will remember that that engraving was with the nails of the cross.

As they pierced through the soft flesh of the hands of Jesus and His blood spilled over the rough wood. Your name and mine were carved on His palms. He suffered in agony that afternoon till He cried out “My God My God, Why have you forsaken me?” In that moment on Mount Calvary Jesus felt alone and forgotten so that we would never be!