The Christmas Story

It’s always been a tradition in my family to read the Christmas story on Christmas morning. With just a few days until Christmas, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Luke, reading the same verses that I’ve read year after year. I guess as you go through life and your experiences change, you discover new things that you’ve never thought twice about in the past. This morning Luke 2:19 seemed to stand out to me.

“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”

I looked up the word “ponder,” and this is what I found:

Ponder: to weigh in the mind; to think about; reflect on; to consider something deeply and thoroughly; to meditate on

Maybe this verse caught my attention because as a new mom, I tend to do this often. I ponder the absolute joy my two children bring me every single day. I think about all the plans God has for each of them, and I can’t wait to see how their lives will bring Him glory. I consider how hard it was to wait on Him to give Jake and Lilly to us, but I recognize how in the waiting, I learned so much about Him.

I wonder how much different it must have been for Mary. After Jesus was born and the shepherds came to worship him, telling of the angels that appeared to them in the fields, Mary must have been overwhelmed by the faithfulness and love of God. She never said a word, but instead pondered all of the amazing things that had occurred, and kept them safe in her heart.

When Jesus was twelve years old, his mother and father lost him in Jerusalem. I can’t imagine how Mary must have felt when they couldn’t find him. They searched for their son for three days before finding him in the temple, discussing theology with the scholars and teachers. I don’t know about Mary, but I would have been so angry and scared and thrilled and relieved all at the same time! If this had been either Jake or Lilly that I had lost track of, I’m not certain if I would scream at them first or grab them and never let go. I’m sure Mary went through her terrifying list of “what if’s” during those days of searching. When Jesus commented about being in His Father’s house, neither Mary nor Joseph understood what he was talking about. But as I kept reading, again in Luke 2:51, I found Mary pondering all of this:

“And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.”

She treated these experiences as treasures, which she stored up and protected in her heart. I realized something else this morning. Mary did not grasp the full meaning of all of these things at once, but eventually, over the course of thirty years, she did. She came to realize that her son was the Messiah, who came as a Lamb (very fittingly in a dirty barn with stinky animals) to sacrifice His life so that we might be saved and inherit the kingdom of God which none of us are worthy to receive. Unlike Mary, we get to read the entire Christmas story in a matter of minutes. We can read of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection and connect the dots very easily. Mary had to wait a lifetime to see the true purpose of her Son’s life unfold.

Like Mary, I’ll be pondering the reason we celebrate Christmas this week. I’ll remember His faithfulness. I’ll cherish the blessings He’s given to me. I’ll think about how much He loves me even though I don’t deserve it. I’ll ponder how much different my life would be without Jesus.

Merry Christmas!