TREASURE FOR THE HEART
“Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”1
What was she treasuring? What was she pondering after the coarse, bumbling shepherds had left the stable? She lay down and nursed her infant, holding his little fingers in her hand.
Was she pondering the rustling and whispered voices at the stable door that night? In the dead of the night, before the roosters would break the quiet, Joseph had been concerned. He had opened the door to a group of rough-looking shepherds. They were breathless from running; respectful and gentle in demeanor; eager to see the baby. They were smelly and not very clean, but then, the stable was smelly, too. They gazed in awe, knelt and bowed their heads. Were they praying? Were they worshipping? How surprised she and Joseph had been! How did these visitors know she had given birth? How did those shepherds find out about Jesus, and how did they find their way to this stable? They said an angel told them; and they said her baby was “Lord” and he would save people. That was something to treasure and ponder.
Cousin Elizabeth had said the same thing. Mary had gone to visit her while she was pregnant and Elizabeth had called her “the mother of my Lord”2. Elizabeth, unlike some people, was delighted she was pregnant.
And Joseph! How she treasured him right now, calm and firm, by her side, encouraging and protective. She remembered how, at first, he had been horrified and hurt that she was pregnant. And then, how his mind had changed completely. He, too, had been told by an angel that the baby within her was their Lord. “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”3
It was the same message she had received all those months ago, at home with her parents before she had talked with Joseph. “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”4
Astonishing events! So much consolidation! Different people, having no contact with each other, all receiving the same message!
As she lay in the hay, with baby Jesus in the crook of her arm, she could not imagine the future, his first few steps, playing with the other boys, his manhood. She just treasured what she did know.
This baby I have born is my “Lord”? I have conceived him by the Holy Spirit, and not by Joseph or any other man. He is God’s Son. He is both my son and my Lord.
Two thousand years later we ponder these events and know Jesus has the power of a Lord in our inmost being. His power breaks the grip of guilt and sets our spirits free.
1 Luke 2:19 NIV
2 Luke 1:43
3 Matthew 1:20b
4 Luke 1:31,32a
Andrea Kidd
