Scripture
16 And (the shepherds) went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
19 … Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
51 And (Jesus) went down with (Mary and Joseph) and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Observation
Two things strike me this morning from Luke 2:
The Humility of Jesus
The Heart of Mary
The Savior of the world … Lord over all creation … comes to earth as a newborn!
It’s so easy to get used to this from a cultural perspective … “the Christmas story”.
But this is the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, from everlasting to everlasting, coming to a speck of dirt in the universe as an utterly dependent baby!
I can only be frozen in awe if i truly grasp the humility of this.
And then later, when the family was returning to their hometown after a festival in Jerusalem, Jesus stayed behind.
As far as Mary and Joseph were concerned, their son Jesus was “missing”.
After this event, the young boy Jesus is described as “submissive to them”.
This, again, is simply astounding.
The teachers in the temple were “amazed at his understanding and answers”.
Yet, boy Jesus, again, sustainer of all that is seen and unseen, … was “submissive” to his parents.
The humility is stunning.
I don’t know how much of a full understanding Mary had at the time of the events unfolding in her midst.
But she certainly had the appropriate response.
Ponder them and treasure them in her heart.
She took none of this for granted.
No doubt many walked by or casually greeted or hardly noticed who this Jesus was in their midst.
But Mary’s heart was full.
Full of pondering and treasuring.
Application
How humble am I?
I really do try to be humble.
But when I consider my own humility, my inclination will always be to compare myself against someone less humble than I am.
I can make myself look relatively good in this light.
But I must consider Jesus.
My humility is infinitesimally minuscule compared to God of the universe making Himself greet the world as a newborn … in an animal’s food trough, no less!
I should never stop being in awe of this.
Which makes me ask myself, “What am I in awe of?”
Often times it will be acts of overcoming, of achievement, and of “victory against the odds”.
What was Mary in awe of?
Shepherds, a birth, … her son’s presence after being found.
Mary treasured seemingly simple things.
Nothing had been “overcome” or “victorious” or “achieved”, yet.
In fact, having Jesus in her life had complicated her life in many ways.
Jesus didn’t make Mary’s life “easier”.
But she treasured the moments in her heart.
Luke mentions two separate occasions of Mary doing this.
I imagine this was a recurring habit for Mary.
Observing and pondering and treasuring in her heart.
I should embrace this same habit.
Prayer
Thank you, God, for you word.
Help me see these words not merely as a Christmas story,
But the greatest story of all
Help me ponder and treasure these things
And all things of who you are in my heart
In Jesus name,
Amen