Mary pondered these things in her heart. Luke 2:18-19

One interesting line in the Christmas story is the conclusion in Luke 2:19: Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.

What does that mean? This line comes after Luke narrates the well-known events of Luke chapter 2: Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to pay taxes, she gave birth, laid Him in a manger, shepherds arrived with an astounding tale about a sky filled with angels who announced the birth of a Savior who is Christ the Lord or “the anointed one who is God.”

“And all who heard about it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart” Luke 2: 18-19.

Again, what does it mean that Mary “pondered things in her heart”—and is that something we should do?

Other translations use other phrases, writing that Mary treasured these things—

• meditating on them
• trying to understand them
• wondering what they meant
• always thought about them and kept on thinking about them
• thought deeply about them, turning them over in her mind.

“Pondering these things in her heart” appears to mean that Mary thought about these things and kept on thinking about them all the time.

And isn’t that what she should do? I mean, if God shows up in your life and sends angels to foretell your future, shouldn’t you pay attention? You should pay attention like never before! If God ever, EVER gets involved in your life, there is NOTHING more important than that. (Of course, you need to be 100% certain it is God—pray and beg Him for clarity.) But once you know it is Him, you must absolutely pay attention, and then spend the rest of your life reflecting back on it, remembering it and thinking about it and pondering it all the time forever. (You may have noticed that your mother and I always return to the same set of stories about things God has done in our lives.) The acts of God will become the most significant stories you will ever tell. Henry Blackaby writes that you should write them down, making a written list of the “spiritual markers” in your life. Pay attention! If God did it, nothing will ever matter more.

But I think there is a second truth to be learned from Mary. She pondered these things, but she did not draw conclusions. We love to draw conclusions. We love to look at one thing God did and plan our entire future based on that. For example, God helped me succeed in algebra after many failures, so maybe God was calling me to be a math teacher. (I never fell for that outrageous notion, but you get the idea!) If God gives you success with children, do you automatically conclude you will be a children’s worker? If God gives you success with sports, must you then conclude you will work in sports? If God helps you to be a peacemaker, does that mean He is calling you to work for the US State Department? If God makes you the class president, does that mean He is calling you to a life of politics? You can see how drawing premature conclusions is often an error.

Mary did not draw conclusions.

She knew the child came from God. So would He be an earthly king? If so, why did Simeon prophecy to her that “a sword will pierce even your own soul”? And though God had blessed her and Joseph and performed an amazing miracle of the virgin birth, could she conclude that her life was now going to be easy and trouble-free? How could she make that assumption? From the beginning, everyone—EVERYONE—would assume she had sinned with Joseph. They would heap deep shame on both of them and their child. Would even her own parents believe her? That shame would follow their family for the rest of their lives. Then the baby was born in a barn full of manure, surrounded by the smell of urine-soaked hay. Then Herod wanted to murder their baby and they had to run away to Egypt, refugees without a homeland, raising the Messiah in a pagan land full of sun-worshipers. How was Mary supposed to feel about that?

I don’t know. And Mary did not know.

In THE TWO TOWERS, Sam Wise Gamgee asks, “I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?”

And Frodo answers, “I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale… The people in it don’t know.”

Following God often means not knowing where your story is going.

It means not knowing the future. It means walking into a dark future BY FAITH, not by sight. You watch what He does. You get involved and work at serving Him wherever He leads you. You pray and say, like Mary, “behold the bondservant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy word.” And you let God do His work.

And you do not draw conclusions. The story remains open-ended. We do not know what God will do. But we do know what He has already done, and so we treasure those things in our hearts, and we ponder them and think about them all the time. Because the things God has done will give perspective and insight as you move into the future. Your past may guide you—but it will not predict your future.

Pray. Dear God, thank you for loving us enough to get involved in our lives. Thank you for speaking to us, leading us, and working in us. Thank you for using us—what an AMAZING privilege. Help us to watch you at work, to remember every detail. Remind us to write down the works of God in our lives—to record our spiritual markers. And help us ponder them like Mary, reflecting on your work and being led by it. But remind us to be open-minded, to avoid drawing false conclusions. We are open, God. We give you free reign. Do your work in our lives. Do your will—whatever you want to do, we are available. We love you. We are here to serve you. We trust you with the dark, unknown days of the future, just as Mary did. We too want to pray, “Behold, the bondservant of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Thy word.”

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