MARY’S TREASURE

 

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. (Luke 2:19)

Only a mother knows and understands. I tremble to write about what I do not know, but mothers know. I have watched my wife with our eight children and two in heaven. There is a mother’s love and a sacred “knowing” that is reserved for the sacred task of mothering.

HERE WAS YOUNG MARY

… visited by one of God’s mightiest angels who prophesied to her that she would bear a Son, the Messiah, who would have no earthly Father. She heard simply, profoundly that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you,” and He did. She knew this child she felt in her womb was Divine. And she submitted with the surrender of her entire body to the Father’s will … a model of humble submission for eternity.

“Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

BEFORE HIS BIRTH

… she went to spend some days with her Aunt Elizabeth, who, in her later years was now pregnant with a blessed surprise. God had opened her womb to carry one who would be the forerunner of the Christ. When Mary entered her house, Elizabeth greeted her with an astonishing response.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? (Luke 1:41-43)

And Mary treasured this in her heart, pondering what this could mean.

AT HIS BIRTH

… angels filled the skies; shepherds came and worshiped. But Mary had a deeper knowledge. She knew who this Son of hers was. She knew she had been chosen, by the favor of God, to carry a King those nine months and then to nurture Him to adulthood. This daughter of Abraham realized her child was the promise of the ages, the Messiah, the Lord.

Can you imagine the glory of that birth and the exploding realizations in Mary’s soul as angels and shepherds alike attended her Son’s delivery?

Mary treasured all this.

IN THE TEMPLE

… on the eighth day after Jesus was born, the aged prophet Simeon proclaimed him, once again, as the Christ. She and her husband, Joseph, were “amazed at the things that were being said about Him,” but Mary, although overwhelmed, must not have been surprised. She knew intuitively what Joseph could only surmise.

And then, Simeon said this:

“Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35)

She did not know what form that piercing would take. But she found that prophecy true as she later stood at the crucifixion of her Son, bearing the sins of the world.

Mary pondered.

An angelic prophecy, a Divine conception, a Spirit-empowered confirmation even within her own family, a humble birth attended by the angels of heaven, and the continued prophecies of those who knew.

So, Mary “treasured all these things in her heart” as only Mary—the mother of our Lord—could. Her blessed submission and sacred mothering were used to bring our Savior to us, who would take away our sins, and hers.