And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him. - Luke 1:64-66

What a marvel to behold! The man that was so quickly sentenced to silence nine months before has now regained his voice just as quickly. Having repented of all doubt, Zacharias breaks forth into praise of the Almighty!

And it's not just Zacharias who is talking. God has multiplied the message in the voices of all that saw these wondrous things in Hebron. We have seen before that God does His things His own way. Now, His wisdom and power are shown in the spreading of news of the forerunner of the Messiah.

To “lay up something in your heart” is to hold an event as a treasured memory. The family members may not have known exactly what was going on but they did know that God was working in a mighty way in the family of Zacharias.  They knew that his child was going to be someone special. They learned from Zacharias’ testimony in the remainder of Luke 1 that John was to announce the coming of their long-awaited King.  They were witness to the first public proclamation of this great news and it was most precious to them.

We need to keep in memory those times when we see the Lord at work in our lives or the lives of others.  Then, when trouble comes or we feel alone, we can harken back to those memories to help ourselves or others.