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?
Thank you & Merry Christmas
ReplyDeleteThank you Georganna! I hope you had a great Christmas and that this year is the best one yet for you!!
ReplyDelete