Mary had much on her mind
Mary had a lot to think about. There she was, just recovering from the hard labour of giving birth to a baby boy under less-than-ideal conditions. Then the next thing she knew she was dealing with visitors.
No new mother truly welcomes company right after she gives birth, least of all to a group of rough-and-ready shepherds fresh from the fields in their smelly work garb. The shepherds were well aware they were out of their element, but something so amazing had happened they just had to make sure it was true. Had they experienced a collective hallucination, or did "a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger" truly exist in Bethlehem that night?
So...Mary entertained visitors the night Jesus was born, a group of shepherds crowding into the birthing room with an unlikely story spilling from their exuberant lips—words about angels appearing; words of a divine message to proclaim; words detailing the sign of the baby in the manger. Eventually they left, still overflowing, still rejoicing from their uncommon encounter with the holy.
"But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19).
Pondering what?
Mary did have a lot to think about. The shepherds told an extraordinary story, but it wasn't this young woman's first encounter with angelic beings. Earlier that same year she too was touched by an angel; she too received a sign that was subsequently confirmed. Strange things were happening. The birth of Jesus was supremely special and unique, but something similar had also happened to her cousin Elizabeth. Miracles were in the air.
So there she was, Mary, occupying the best seat in the house as significant events unfolded. But it wasn't the angels and the miracles and the signs and wonders that filled her mind that night. It was the words, the message the angels gave to the shepherds: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord" (2:11).
"Saviour." The word echoed in the chambers of her mind—a hero who would deliver her people from their oppressors. But the shepherds' testimony indicated something even more remarkable and inspiring than political salvation.
"Messiah, the Lord," they'd added. The angels' message raised expectations of a deeper deliverance by referring to Mary's baby as the "Christ," the anointed one. This was indeed something to contemplate. Quite likely the prophecy of the priest Zechariah was also bubbling in her brain. He'd spoken of one who would "give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of sins" (1:77).
Forgiveness of sins is a divine duty. Who can fathom it? Did Mary have more than an inkling what these words might mean? Well, she certainly wondered about them. Actually, she pondered them, which means that she rolled them over and over in her mind in an ongoing effort to grasp their truth, to harmonize the mean circumstances of her human experience with these divine and glorious but oh-so-baffling interruptions.
Certainly this message and the angelic encounters were too lofty to fully comprehend. So Mary "kept" her ruminations to herself, she "treasured" them in the inner recesses of her heart and mind. These weren't things to be talking about down at the village well.
For though the tidings proclaimed in Bethlehem that night were joyful and triumphant, the angels' prophetic words carried forebodings of sorrow as well. The baby Mary carried in her womb, the infant she delivered in a stable, the boy she would raise through childhood, was born with a larger destiny than to be her son. He was to be the Saviour "of all people" (1:10).
On the very day of his birth, Mary had a premonition that Jesus would serve higher priorities than the desires of His earthly parents. She sensed that one day ere long He would make them anxious as He went about a business more exalted than carpentry (2:49). Jesus' life was dedicated to a grand and mysterious calling.
Right from the very beginning, Mary knew something significant was afoot, and "treasured all these things in her heart" (2:51).
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