Pondering

March 28

Numbers 31

Psalm 37:35-40

Proverbs 9:7-9

Luke 2:39-52

Pondering

“And He went down with them, and He continued in subjection to them, and His mother was treasuring all these things in her heart.  And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”  Luke 2:51-52 LSB

Earlier in chapter 2, when the shepherds came to visit Jesus, Luke says, “But Mary was treasuring all these things, pondering them in her heart.”  In the passage today, Luke was describing something that happened 12 years later and he says that “Mary was treasuring all these things in her heart.”  Mary seems to have been a quiet soul.  I’m sure that is one of the reasons God chose her to be the mother of our Lord.  She was not a blabbermouth.  She didn’t go around telling everything she knew.  She took it all in, treasured it and pondered what it all meant.  Being a mother is hard work, but I can’t imagine the pressure of raising the Son of God, the One who was going to be your Savior.  In addition, she had to raise several other children as well.  She had to manage the sibling rivalry, the difficulty of not favoring her perfect son over his siblings and knowing who He is but yet not fully understanding the implications of that.  She could have told everyone she saw that her Son was the Messiah, bragging about Him and explaining to them how He was perfect.   But that wasn’t the plan.  God’s plan was for Jesus to grow up in relative obscurity until it was time for his ministry to begin.  As mamas we are proud of our kids and want them to get the recognition they deserve.  We want everyone to know how great they are.  Jesus really was great.  He was perfect and deserved the highest recognition, but even those closest to Him didn’t seem to know who He was.  Mary just understood that she wasn’t supposed to tell everyone.  God had a plan and she was obedient to follow it. 

            Her quiet spirit came from deep faith.  She trusted God.  She watched in awe as this tiny baby she had birthed grew and developed.  She watched as He loved and served others.  She saw His gentle heart and tender mercy to those around Him.  Luke tells us about two times that she treasured these things in her heart, but there were surely countless other moments when she watched in wonder trying to comprehend that God was living in her house, helping her wash the dishes, and babysitting her other children while she did housework.  Surely she pondered in her heart as He hung on the cross, confused and wondering how her sinless Son, who was God incarnate, could be treated like that.   Someone with deep faith can remain silent when things don’t make sense.  They can treasure and ponder the mysteries of God and still trust that even when they don’t understand what is happening, God is in control and He is working everything according to His plan.  Deep Faith knows that it can’t figure everything out and is at peace with that reality.