WATCHWORD:
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:8-12, 16-19
Meditation:
Mary’s Story
Can we get inside the mind of Mary? Her thoughts as Jesus grows through childhood, into adulthood, even onto Calvary. There have been multiple opportunities for her to call to mind what the Angel had said, “This baby will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of King David, his ancestor.”
The Messiah, there, on the floor, playing as a child, learning to walk, crying to have his nappy changed or to be fed, sitting restlessly taking lessons from the visiting rabbi, or that amazing day in the temple when he was just 12 and you thought you had lost him. How foolish you were. Mary remembered laughing as he first learned to use a hammer, or other tools of the carpenter trade, and even felt pride and he mastered those.
She recalled multiple conversations with him regarding his aunt Elizabeth and his cousin John and what he was up to somewhere along the Jordan river. The rumor was that he was baptizing, and this son of hers, no this son of God, had his mind set on finding him and to be baptized. Then, when he was an adult, he left to find His cousin. And Mary wondered.
A new image came to her mind, at the wedding of her sister to John, a close friend of Jesus, there in Cana. When the wine ran out, she knew it was time for her son to begin his ministry. So, with confidence, she instructed the stewards to fill the water jars. That was just the start. So many stories came back to Nazareth, so many people skeptical and not believing. But Mary did. She knew who he was, for there had been too many divine happenings to discount. The miracles, the healings, the walking on water, then there was Lazarus. Stories and happenings easy for her to understand, because she believed what she had been told so long before.
But the hardest one, the one that pierced her heart, was what Jesus had gone through yesterday as she sat at the foot of His cross. “How could God have allowed him go through this, this awful thing,”, she had asked herself. No, in truth, she had asked God, but no answer came, only her tears and heart-break.
This was the next day, and on this morning she felt blessed, a sense of grace as she pondered anew all that she knew of this son of hers, God’s Son, His history, God’s promises. With that, she moved around the upper room filled with grieving followers, reassuring them, smiling, loving them, and asking them to remember what Jesus had said. His words came to her with clarity, “It is written, that the Messiah should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,” Her son was the Messiah, so, as she moved around the room, each conversation ended with, “Tomorrow is coming, and it is the third day.”
God’s promises are ironclad. His timing is perfect. Our listening and understanding is flawed and we are impatient. We, like Mary, each day need to ponder anew what the Lord can do, as we remain faithful and know in our hearts that His promises are Truth and Light.
A Prayer in Song:
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work, and defend thee.
Surely God’s goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Help us to Ponder anew
what the Almighty can do,
who with great love doth befriend thee.
Amen.
