First Memories of Jesus

Memories of first hearing the name Jesus can help us to understand the spiritual development—and capacity—of children in our lives today. Here, our Mom Mentors share their poignant and revealing first encounters with the name above all names. 

Q: What is your earliest memory of hearing the name Jesus, and what did it mean to you?

Kona Brown: I am sure that I had heard the name of Jesus many a time before the age of 6. But when I was that age there was a lot of turmoil in my life, and I remember clearly a song I heard at children’s church that had a significant impact on the shape that Jesus took in my mind.

It’s an Afrikaans song that loosely translated reads like this: “When He comes again, He will come to fetch his pearls, all the pearls, precious pearls, for Jesus’s crown. All the faces of the children like the stars in the sky, those are the pearls He
will have in his crown.” At a time when I didn’t know what was happening in my home, and in the world that I knew, that I used to think was a safe place for a child’s heart, the song helped me to see myself as someone that Jesus knew and viewed as precious, precious enough to come and fetch, precious enough for a crown.

And I guess it gave me a sense of the fact that there is this moment, but that there is also eternity, and that Jesus is in both. Music has an amazing way of making complex concepts simple and this song might’ve been a very simplistic revelation of His character and the concept of eternity, but certainly for me, it stuck.

Jill Williams: As a young child, God was mostly spoken of in my home, rather than Jesus. Jesus appeared in Bible verses I tried to find faster than anyone else, and in the Apostles creed. But the words on a poster given to me when I was a pre-teen are my earliest memory of hearing Jesus’ name, and it meaning something to me. I still have the poster with a loaf of bread and a glass of wine filling the page, saying:

“Jesus of Nazareth requests the honor of your presence at a dinner to be given in His honor.”

The words pressed in on me: I’m being invited to be with Jesus. Even more remarkable is that evidently my presence would be an honor. For a young girl striving for awards and recognition, when all I wanted was to not have to keep striving, the idea that my presence would be an honor to Jesus, for nothing I’d done, but for the sake of His request for me to be present with Him was powerful, personal, and desirable. I didn’t understand communion, or Jesus. Yet, from these words, I understood that He wanted me, and this captured me.

Dusty Shell: I was the child of an alcoholic. It made for some rather unpleasant times during my childhood. When I was around 6-7 or so, a local church approached my mother and asked if she would be interested in allowing me to be picked up by their church bus and brought to services. She allowed it and so began my journey with the Lord.

In a small church, in a small town, the hands of Jesus reached out and touched a
small heart through some amazing children’s ministry workers. That name, Jesus, gave me hope that even in the midst of some bad things, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I am so thankful to the two women who taught both my Sunday School class and the G.A. club that I participated in. Without them teaching me about Jesus for the first time, I may not have made it out of the traumatic instances in my childhood with a positive outlook on the future.

Tiffany Malloy:  I grew up in a culturally Christian home. We attended church on the “important days” but I wasn’t nurtured into a relationship with Jesus.  My aunt, however, became a Christian sometime during my early childhood, and I remember her sharing about Jesus with my family and me when she came to visit during the summer. She would teach me how to sing Christian songs like “Jesus Loves Me” and “Zaccheus was a Wee Little Man.” She’d tell us stories from the Bible and give us “Jesus-themed” gifts (which I mostly thought were a little lame, to be honest, ha!). These are my first memories of hearing about Jesus.

At the time, I was slightly curious about Jesus, but I have a hard time saying for sure if my curiosity and interest had more to do with the person of Jesus or with my love for my aunt. Either way, God was planting seeds of His love in my heart. While I didn’t come to really trust in Jesus until middle school, I know those early stories, songs and discussions set the foundation for my relationship with God.

Chere Williams: I can’t recall the first time I heard Jesus’ name. But, my earliest memories of Jesus came from one of the greatest loves of my life…my grandma Eva. I refer to her as a Christian soldier. She was fiercely in love with Jesus and she reflected this love in every aspect of her life and poured it out freely on everyone she came across.

One of my favorite memories of learning about Jesus was being curled up in bed with my grandma while she read the Bible to me. It was one of those Bibles that had questions in the back, and she’d ask me them. I can still remember my excitement when I answered correctly. So many of my experiences with her revolved around her love for Jesus. I didn’t understood how impactful my grandmother’s love for Jesus would later be on my life, even when she was physically no longer here. When I became a single mom I was going through some difficult times. Then one particularly bad day I opened my grandma’s Bible, and all of the memories of her talking to me about faith and Jesus’ love and grace washed over me. It was as though she was telling me to go back home, go back to the Jesus I knew… and I did.

Susan Heim: I first heard the name “Jesus” when I saw paintings of him at church and at my grandmother’s house. Even though we really don’t know what Jesus looked like, most pictures seem to portray him with brown hair, a beard, a long white tunic and sandals. He looked like a pretty nice guy to me, especially in the paintings that showed him speaking with children or walking with sheep. When I asked who the man was, I was told that he was God’s son, Jesus, who lived many, many years ago. I liked learning about his life in Sunday school and through books, although the part about him being killed was pretty scary. It was only when I matured that the true significance of Jesus’ death became understandable to me. So, as a child, I saw Jesus more as a man. The older I became, the more I began to understand his divinity.

Thank you, Mom Mentors! Learn more about them here and connect with their blogs. We would love to hear about your experiences, too! Do you have a question for them? Please post it below. And share your answer with us. See children’s books for growing up in God at grahamblanchard.com.