I understand that those who live with, or care for, a dementia sufferer quickly learn two (of many) important lessons.
The first is to avoid saying, “I already told you”, and the second is to say, “You do know”, when, of course, if the person did know, s/he would have said so.
I was reminded of the first that occurs in the reference, quoted above, part of the lovely story of the blind man whose eyes had been opened by Jesus. I initially thought this was something said by Jesus to his disciples, and he may well have done so, even if not recorded. He came close to that in Luke 24 verse 25!
It was the former blind man who answered his sceptics with, “I have told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?”
I felt somewhat challenged reading that verse again. How many sermons have I heard and read over 70 years? How many times has God spoken to me directly through Bible readings over a similar period?
I may have mentioned in an earlier TFTD that, having heard preaching on the story of the Prodigal Son four times by different speakers at four different meetings and within a few days, I realised I had misunderstood something in that story. May familiarity not make us immune to what we hear or read.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please help us not to suffer from “memory loss” in relation to anything that you teach us. AMEN.