There is so much richness hidden in the crevices of the Christmas story. No matter how many times you read it, something new always pops out; something about the Word being living and active. With a story so often heard, it is important to ask for new eyes to peer into this story so that we do not become calloused to it.
A few years ago one sentence leaked off the pages and into my heart. It has locked itself away there in a safe place to stay. Each time I read this verse there’s something that pulses deep in my soul. It continues to unlock a door into new depths of my relationship with Jesus. This sentence, this treasure, and all it entails, has meant so much to me that it inspired the name of my blog.
What is this sentence? Luke 2:19
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
“But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.”
“But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them.”
“However, Mary continued to treasure all these things in her heart and to ponder them.”
Let’s back up a little to get more of a panoramic view in order to feel the weight of this sentence. This verse lies right in the midst of the Angels announcing the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds in the field. The Shepherds have dropped everything to go see what the Angels have proclaimed. Upon the confirmation of the Angels decree (seeing Jesus, Mary and Joseph) the Shepherds could not help but tell everyone what they had just experienced, and I don’t blame them. “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them” (Luke 2:18). Here the news is spreading like wildfire. Talk about News Flash, front page of the New York Times, headliner news. The long expected Messiah had finally been born, the prophecy had finally been fulfilled! GO TELL IT ON A MOUNTAIN!
But Mary, oh Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained silent.
Silence.
In a world full of noise do we even know what that sounds like anymore? Or even where to find it? With all the technology, news travels fast around here. Then there’s our tendency to gossip, no quicker has news landed in our ear than it is on our tongues again. But Mary, she kept her mouth shut.
Even in our Christian circles we are encourage to be in community, to confess sin, to talk through things, to ask for prayer. “No one needs to know everything but everything needs to be known by someone.” True, but what about when we begin going to others before we go to Jesus. What about when our relationships with others hinder our relationship with Jesus?
“Mary kept all these things - All that happened, and all that was said respecting her child. She remembered what the angel had said to her; what had happened to Elizabeth and to the shepherds - all the extraordinary circumstances which had attended the birth of her son. Here is a delicate and beautiful expression of the feelings of a mother. A mother forgets none of those things which occur respecting her children. Everything they do or suffer - everything that is said of them, is treasured up in her mind; and often she thinks of those things, and anxiously seeks what they may indicate respecting the future character and welfare of her child.
Pondered - Weighed. This is the original meaning of the word "weighed." She kept them; she revolved them; she "weighed" them in her mind, giving to each circumstance its just importance, and anxiously seeking what it might indicate respecting her child.”
Yet, my closeness to my Savior is enriched from a practice I learned from His mother. I am a ponderer, a thinker, a weigher, a processor. I collect things in my heart and keep them silent from human ears, pondering them in my heart, conversing with my Lord about them, asking Him to shed His light and truth upon them. As I ponder I get to ring out the richness of each thing that comes into my heart and sift out the stuff that should not lodge there. Going to Him first helps me withdraw and thank Him after something good, ask for wisdom in a cloudy area, or ask for comfort when hurt; going to Him to meet the deep needs of my heart in each moment before I search elsewhere. It is only after this that I venture to share with others (when I feel it necessary). I also like to treasure up and ponder things that God reveals to me, sweet moments we have together, or sweet moments He blesses me with others. The moments I feel fully alive, the little glimpses of Heaven.
Do I practice this all the time? No. I fail. But I have found that in silencing myself to others I can hear the voice of the Lord the clearest, His face is not as blurry. After this I can move on and better detect His voice through others, and see the world through spiritual eyes. This helps me guard my tongue, because words have power (check out James 3). This protects me from living out of emotion and rather out of truth. No, it does not eliminate all emotion, but it helps truth to direct my emotions rather than the other way around. Heart ponderings extract the richness and weight of each situation. (The downside to this trait is that I error on the side of being too analytical, thinking too much, trying to fix everything and make it perfect. My mind goes to place it shouldn’t, my heart ponderings start to bring death rather than life. And God is gracious in cutting these thoughts off and pointing ponderings back to Him. Also, most of the time this alerts me to know when it is time to let someone else in on what is surging around in my head.).
I have found that in order to be a Shepherd going and telling the Good News upon the mountain, I must first be like Mary, pondering things in my heart. After these things are sifted through and steep in my heart for awhile, they bubble over beautifully. [I wonder how Mary would have told the story of her son’s birth, full of detail that only heart pondering could produce I am sure]. So here, on this page, you find the results of my heart ponderings. I pray the Lord uses them as treasures from Him for you to ponder in your own heart.
"But the things that we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about, at least until we have talked them over thoroughly with God." -Elisabeth Elliot
May you escape from the noise this Christmas, the want to tell everything to everyone, so that you may treasure up and ponder whatever “all these things” are in your heart.
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