Mary: The One Who Notices And Ponders

Luke 2:19: Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

There are events in our lives that stick with us and that we return to over and over again, for better or for worse.  These events can at various points bring us comfort and joy or anxiety and confusion. There are times when significant events happen and we wish we could hold onto them or if we could we would wipe them from our memory. 

In Luke 2:19, we are told that after the birth of Jesus, shepherds arrived and told Mary about all they experienced: the angel announcing the birth of the Messiah and the angelic hosts proclaiming his birth.  Mary’s response isn’t one of shock or elation, but rather one of reflection. 

I wonder how often Mary thought about what she had been told the night of Jesus’ birth.  Maybe during the sleepless nights as she rocked Jesus to bed, she wondered what it meant to give birth to the Messiah, the son of God. 

Maybe, as Jesus entered his mischievous toddler years, knocking everything down and causing chaos, she thought back to the night of his birth. Perhaps as Jesus entered his teenage years, a son very interested in the Law and Prophets and yet who I can imagine still might have had an edge of an attitude to him, Mary wondered at the one she birthed-someone that she both intimately knew and was in many ways becoming a stranger. 

I’m sure that as Jesus settled into his life as a carpenter perhaps she was tempted to think that the unique circumstances of Jesus’ birth were but a dream. Maybe Jesus would have an average life, going to the temple a few times a year, following God as best as one could, earning money as a carpenter, and maybe having a family.

As Jesus’ ministry and purpose were fully revealed, did she take comfort in the stories of his birth or was she frightened for his future? Did the miracles he performed make sense in light of his birth or did they add to her confusion and concern? Or both? 

It’s tempting to view Mary as a one-dimensional figure, after all, the information we have is limited. It is easy to want to turn her into an untouchable figure-whose we can never hope to emulate and who very rarely experienced fear and doubt. But for me, it is more comforting to embrace her full humanity. To imagine that at different stages of her life and as she watched Jesus grow, she experienced the full gamut of human emotion: joy, anger, curiosity, pain, delight, grief, confusion, and anxiety. 

I take comfort in the idea that when the miraculous happened, she stored those occurrences in her heart and returned to them during moments of doubt and joy. She probably alternatively questioned and embraced what she had seen. Perhaps feeling both comforted and disturbed. 

So often, we like to move forward, onto the next thing. But sometimes it can be helpful to take a moment and reflect on the past. Let’s also follow Mary in this way: let’s be present enough to live and embrace the present and also reflective enough to know when it is beneficial to hold on to what we have witnessed and ponder them. 

Image: Man sitting on a hill, gazing ahead to an ocean or lake. Text. Let’s follow Mary in this way: let’s be present enough to live and embrace the present and also reflective enough to know when it is beneficial to hold on to what we have witnessed and ponder them.