Each day during the  month of March we will be sharing a devotional from a booklet written by Steve Love. Steve is a member of Canton First and a Traumatic Brain Injury survivor. If you would like a complete PDF of this devotional, it can be downloaded here.

Day 20

Exodus 13:14 (New International Version)

“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

All throughout out the Bible God gives instructions to Israel to remember.  Moses is told that when the next generation asks the why they do this and that when it comes to their religious faith to tell them.  Many of us do not know the why behind we worship as we do.  We live in a world it is taken for granted that most every one can read.  That was not always true.  Many of the items which decorate the church were items use by the church to teach the Gospel story.

Many churches have 3 alleys in their sanctuary.  The pulpit sets in front of the church in the middle of the center alley.  Behind the pulpit is a cross hanging on the front wall of the church.  In the days when only a few could read, the sanctuary told the Gospel story.  The three alleys stood for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The center alley stood for Jesus and leads to the pulpit.  The first pulpits used by the church were coffins turn upright.  The coffin spoke of the death of Jesus on the cross to bearing forgiveness of sins.  How many of us take note of our sanctuary and the meanings of the layout?

God wanted His people to remember the works He had done in the past so they could trust Him for their future.   The sad notes when reading the Bible is they forgot and turn their backs on God.   You can say they had a memory problem.  We know all about memory problems.  A common thread we who had a brain injury no matter where the brain was injury is a memory problem.

I have a bad memory problem.   I can answer a phone call and by the time I hang the phone up I have forgotten who call and who the call was for.  I have a distal recorder that I call my memory.  It works great when I remember to us it and to revere back to it. Notes are great if one remembered to read them.  It is a problem we all had to find some means to help us.  Israel had a memory problem.  God was always trying to help them to refine the memory.

At times He had them to build an altar or moments as visual aids.  A striates which we have adopted in our family. He had them celebrated the different times when God had done something great for His people.  The Holladay’s in the Bible were started not to have a party with lots of food.  They were supposed to be a way for Israel to remember the great things that God had done for them.   Even their home devotions time was sent up as a way for God to help them to remember.  God had many ways and ideas to help His people with their memory problems.

It is hard and very flustering dealing with a memory problem. When I see someone, I know their face. I can even see how I know them, from where I work, the place they work at, the neighbor, and church.  This summer I saw a man who I have known for 30 years but his name was erase from my brain.  Many of us make a joke about our memory problems.  A friend of mine when he forgets something will say, “You think I have a brain injury with a memory problem.”   We need to work on our memory.  God found ways to help His people.  God is there for us as well; we just must remember how God has taken care of us and go to Him in prayer.

Pray and thank God for his love for us seen in the way He is providing for us every day we live.

Pray and thank God for the fact He cares about us and is helping us to deal with our memory problems.

Pray and ask God to give everyone who we have dealings with to be understanding about our memory problems.