The bulk of what we know about Jesus’ birth comes directly from Jesus’ mother.

Before Luke wrote about the birth of Jesus, he interviewed Mary, and it was Mary who vividly told Luke about all the miraculous events that he then wrote about in the gospel of Luke.

Mary’s memory of these amazing events is referred to in Luke 2:19 where the Bible says, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

The word “kept” in the Greek means to keep within oneself in order to closely guard or accurately and carefully preserve, and the word “ponder” means to lay in order, to bring together like a person who carefully chronicles a story.

Mary was so impacted by this amazing sequence of events in her life and in the life of Jesus that she arranged in order all of it in her heart and carefully preserved her memories of it all.

It is amazing to me that if Mary had not kept a record of all these events in her heart and mind, we would not know about them today.

But because she so valued what she had seen God do in her life and in the life of Jesus, she was able to tell the gospel writers the entire account in vivid detail.

Mary’s remembrance of the miraculous events in her life was so clear that she vividly related all the following occurrences to Luke in perfect order

And you can catch that on recording as I went through all the Scriptures last week. You can read what Mary told Luke in the first two chapters of Luke.

Just as Mary shared details of her life with Luke, she told Matthew about many events that she preserved in her heart and mind so vividly — adding significant events that occurred after the holy family returned to Nazareth.

You can read what Mary told Mathew in the first two chapters of Mathew.

As we think about Mary’s remembrance it will make us want to ask — have I preserved my memories of what God has done in my life so vividly that I can share them with someone else?

Have we been careful to remember the works of the Lord in our life?

Or have you forgotten what God has done, or let those things slip because so much time has passed?

If you’ve let those workings of God slip in your life, it’s not too late to pause and take stock of those things again, pondering them deeply and preserving them in your memory like Mary did.

Whether it’s using a composition notebook a steno pad a journal something where you can write down all of the workings of God in your life.

Even have a notebook at your bedside that when you get a word from the lord you can write it down

This is your life and this is your story. You have a testimony to share. Your name is in the book of life. And your name will add other names to the book as you share the workings of God in your life.