“It’s just like riding a bike,” the adage goes. Once you learn your body never forgets how to stay balanced. This display of our brain’s motor memory really is a marvel and mystery.
I think one of the reasons we love the #Advent and #Christmas season is the genuine display of human kindness and generosity that trends upward. We even give a pass to the kitschy and cliché decor, cards, movies, and gifts because we get so wrapped in the spirit off love and joy (pun intended). Yet, how quickly we forget once the calendar turns. We do not have a very strong motor memory when it comes to compassion and goodwill. We need to learn it again and again, day in and day out. This is one of the reasons I so deeply value the Christian calendar. The liturgical cycle strengthens our motor memory as we align ourself on loop to the stories of our faith that move us closer and closer to the day when all is new and right again. As the prophet Isaiah says,
“God shall judge between the nations,and shall arbitrate for many peoples;they shall beat their swords into plowshares,and their spears into pruning hooks;nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (2:4).