A Time to Treasure; a Time to Ponder.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”
Luke 2:19.  New Revised Standard Version

Did you cry out, Mother Mary,
In the night, far from home,
With Joseph as clumsy mid-wife?

Did you cry out, Mother Mary,
With delight, when you held
The Infant Jesus to your breast?

Did you cry out, Mother Mary,
At the sight of shepherds,
Wonder-filled, adoring your Child?

Did you cry out, Mother Mary,
Filled with fright, off to Egypt
With Herod’s thugs reigning down death?

Did you cry out, Mother Mary,
In the night, pondering,
Treasuring, these things in your heart?

The new year is 5 days old today.  Did you notice?  Or has the new grind already melded into the old grind and today finds you trudging along?

Mother Mary beckons.  It is the 11^th Day of Christmas and Mother Mary is still pondering.  But first she treasured.  The word translated ‘treasured’ can also mean ‘protect’ or ‘defend’.  Mary protected the memory of the words spoken about her Son.  She protected them by treasuring them in the safest place—her heart.  Mary is not only Mother, but Teacher and Example for us.  Treasure the wonder and mystery of the Christmas story.  Store it up in your heart.  But do not lock it away there and forget it.

No, consider Mother Mary yet again.  Teacher Mary.  Example Mary.  Ponder these wondrous mysteries which God Himself has made known to you.  St. Paul liked to tell people to ‘think on these things’.

It is not a mental exercise only.  It is not some theological gymnastics.  It is the practice of the soul to ponder, to contemplate, to think on the things of God, as he reveals them in his Scripture; as he reveals them in the Word Incarnate.  Mary knew.

Resist the grind.  Ward off the same-old-same-old.  See Mary.  Mary is your teacher, your example.  Treasure the things of Christ.  Ponder them in your heart.

This is life.  This is the stuff of the New Life.  This is the New Life journey in the New Year.

Text and picture, copyright Don Schatz