December 24, 2022: Luke 2:19 - Let Us Ponder All These Things

“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” - Luke 2:19

Oh, the things that Mary must have been thinking about! She had traveled with her betrothed husband Joseph to a place that wasn’t her home, and had given birth to her Son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, as the angel Gabriel had told her she would. Gabriel had said, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Gabriel had also told her, “…that Holy One who is to be born, will be called the Son of God.”

And now, shepherds from the fields had come seeking the Babe, who is Christ the Lord, whom an angel had told them they would find lying in a manger in Bethlehem, the city of David.

As a mother, I know that during pregnancy and after our children our born, we imagine all the things our children will experience as they grow. I wonder what Mary pondered about her Son. Oh, the excitement of seeing the prophecy fulfilled of conceiving a Child and yet her betrothed husband Joseph had not yet known her; the conception of a Child born of the Holy Spirit, the Child who caused her pregnant relative Elizabeth’s baby, who was still in Elizabeth’s womb, to leap with joy when he heard Mary’s voice!

Mary was chosen by God to bring forth Jesus - Emmanuel, God with Us - for she had found favor with God. Perhaps as she experienced all these things, she recalled what Scripture had also foretold, what Isaiah the prophet had written about as he wrote down words of prophecy from God Himself. Perhaps while gazing into the eyes of her newborn Son, she recalled and pondered upon what was written before His birth and what we read now in Isaiah 53: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

We don’t know what she pondered in her heart but I am so very thankful that “God so loved the world that gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Like Mary, may we ponder in our hearts all these things which we have seen and heard about Jesus. If you do not know Him as your Savior, I pray you will see that truly He is the greatest gift ever given to mankind. I pray that today, you will not despise this Man of sorrows but would turn to Him, accept His free gift of redemption of sins, given to you with incomparable love and mercy, and let Him give light to you to guide your feet in the way of peace, as He did for Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds in those days long ago. ✝️