Mary’s Gift

Luke 2:19 NIV

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

What Sort of Gift Are You Expecting?

This past week I was talking with some children and one of them asked what I was going to do for Christmas.  I gave her a brief summary of our Christmas day plans and told her also that we would go to a church service on Sunday also.  Quickly one of the children stated she too was a Christian and commented that several others of them there were also Christian and they all nodded their heads and smiled.   The girl pointed at another child and asked her if she was a Christian too and she smiled broadly and said she was.  One of the children then gazed deeply into my eyes and asked me if I would be drinking at Christmas.  I admitted I wouldn’t, that I didn’t drink at all and she then solemnly confessed that both of her parents drank and then paused.  “I wish my dad didn’t drink so much. I have tried to get him to quit but he won’t.  I got my grandpa to stop smoking but my dad won’t stop drinking.”  Dumbfounded by this child’s openness and deep sadness, I gave no reply.  What sadness there is in this world!  What brokenness and heartache!  I wonder, if that little eleven year old girl has a Christmas wish that goes beyond toys and games and cool vacations.  I wonder what sort of gift she wants this Christmas day!

Recently I spent a bit of time pondering the circumstances Mary the mother of Jesus faced as she went through her nine months of pregnancy.  Was she aware of the internal struggle Joseph her betrothed was enduring?  Did she know just how heartbroken he was upon discovering Mary was pregnant?  Of course she must have seen it in his eyes, in his frowning, in the tension that hardened his smile.  Mary got to take a break from the public scrutiny for a while.  She went to be with her pregnant cousin Elizabeth and celebrate the child she would soon have in her old age.  There was a gift awaiting Mary that she would always treasure.  When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1:41-45 NIV)

The comfort Mary felt at Elizabeth’s reaction to her walking in the house breathed hope into the young and tenderhearted Mary.  After three months though, she returned to Nazareth, pregnant and unmarried.  Soon the whispers began; the rumors, the gossip, the frowns, the withering stares as she passed.  But then came a second gift, a stunning surprise.  Joseph had a dream and in it an angel told him not to be afraid of Mary’s pregnancy.  “Stay with her,” he was told. “Believe her”, the angel insisted.  It was too good to be true.  Joseph was going to still marry her: he trusted her and believed her story.  But as the day of the baby’s birth grew near, a stupendous demand was made of her.  Mary would have to walk all the way to Bethlehem from Nazareth with nine months of baby in her belly.  In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world… And everyone went to his own town to register.  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. (Luke 2:1-6 NIV)

We always picture her riding on a donkey as they trudged along but none of the accounts in the Bible say anything about a donkey…or a horse…or a mule…or even a Shetland pony.  Ninety miles they trudged along.  Up steep hills and along dry and weary valleys they plodded.  This could not have been in any of Mary’s dreams of how this would go.  They say that it is good for women to walk a bit the final days of their pregnancy…but not ninety miles.  It was unreasonable.  Miserable!  Swollen ankles and a heavy belly throwing her balance out of whack added to the wretchedness of it.  They made it though…somehow.

Finally in Bethlehem where Mary was bursting with baby and ready to give birth, no place could found where they could stay.  Famously there was, “no room in the inn.”   Where was Mary’s baby to be born?  We say it was a stable but we don’t really know.  A stable isn’t mentioned, just a feed trough where Jesus was placed after He was delivered by Joseph.  Imagine the disappointment Mary must have felt having to deliver Jesus like a sheep delivers its lamb, like a cow its calf, like a doe its fawn outside or in a stall or some cave somewhere.  Alone with her husband and the baby at her side, it would seem Mary may have felt forgotten, certainly weary, and perhaps unwanted.  At the same time as Mary was giving birth to her baby Jesus in some dirty and forsaken place in Bethlehem, shepherds scattered along the hillsides with their sheep drearily kept track of the flocks they managed.  Every night a lonesome watch!  Shepherds may not have been as despised in Israel as they were in Egypt during Jacob’s time but they were certainly shunned by most people.  Dirty, smelly, poor, uneducated, socially awkward, having all the unique personality traits of those out by themselves for hours and weeks and months at a time, they were no one’s role model, living on the bottom rung of the social order.

But then without warning, the sky exploded with supernatural wonder.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  (Luke 2:8-9 NIV)  The angel was not alone though.  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:13-14 NIV)  The message to all those shepherds in shocked amazement was astonishing.  But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:10-12 NIV)

Off the shepherds scampered scattering about the town of Bethlehem in search of this wondrous baby.  When they found him, the mob of filthy shepherds and their dumbfounded expressions as they approached Mary and her newborn baby Jesus must have been quite a confounding sight for the young disheveled mother and her husband.  Can we imagine what alarm and dismay they might have initiated in Mary’s heart?   What else could go badly she may have wondered!  And yet this was the great Christmas gift, an astonishing one.  As the shepherds, perhaps all at once, blurted out the sight of the great host of angels and the message they gave, Mary may have at first listened in stunned disbelief but then, having experience with the supernatural workings of God, realized that it was the Lord who was once more comforting her, once again giving her peace and encouragement.  Over and over the shepherds may have repeated the message.  "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.   With all the chaos and disappointment and hardship this birth brought, Mary had this amazing gift to consider.  The Scripture says that Mary, " treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 NIV)

The expression “treasured” is the translation of a Greek word that means “to keep safe” or “to protect carefully in mind”.  “Pondered” likewise means to “continuously cast about in mind.”  In other words, Mary thought about this message from the angels over and over again and never forgot what they said.  In a time of great upheaval, loneliness and troubling thoughts, God presented Mary with a lovely gift that carried her past all her doubt and fear.  God, wrapped in the packaging of dirty shepherds who were outcasts from much of the world, gave Mary something to treasure.  “I am with you.  I am in charge and I will take you through this.”  On this very day and in this one place, do you have a gift that God has given you that you have not noticed, that you have not given much thought, not grasped its great value?  Maybe you have not thought enough of what God has done for you, not yet fully seen what a lovely and great gift He has given you.  Perhaps you could wait just a moment with Christ beside you and consider what gift you have that is precious beyond measure.  Do you see it?  Do you have it fixed in your mind?  What great gift has God given you that you can never repay?