Jimbo's Jots

Many studies have been done on memory and time dating. Dementia patients, in most cases, have issues with, what I would call, short term memory loss. They have trouble remembering the immediate. However, some of those same people who struggle with dementia have been able to recall hymns as they were being sung to them.

At the end of the Disney movie Coco, the scene is Miguel singing to Mama Coco. Mama Coco is old. She doesn’t speak or move. Miguel in a quest to help her remember her father begins to sing a song that her father wrote for her. As Miguel sings Remember Me, Mama Coco starts to sing with him. When the song is finished, she smiles and starts to talk about her Papa.

We mark memories by time. I can recall the times that I got calls from family about important family events. I can tell what I was doing at those moments . . . at Michigan Christian Youth Camp when I got the call before my dad’s death; shopping at Meijer when I got the call saying they had rushed mom to the hospital.

It’s not all bad either. We timestamp the good times too. Our wedding day. They day each of my girls were born. Sing with good friends.

Maybe this is why Solomon reminds us:

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth . . . before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain” (Ecclesiastes 12: 1-2, NIV)

Maybe Solomon is saying take notice and timestamp the times you have been aware of God’s work in your life. Remember how God was with you in times of blessings and times of trouble. Celebrate God in your memory.

And I DO love Solomon’s poetic reminder, “before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark”. It’s just a simple way to say before you get too old to remember what God has done. And maybe that’s why hymns often work with those who suffer from dementia. Because the memory of God working in their lives has been timestamped from long ago.

Be blessed in your remembering! Be a blessing along the way to others to create memories of joy!