Christmas

This devotional is written by Tash Oakes-Monger who loves cold water swimming, apricots, and all things queer and social justice.

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

In this passage we see both the shepherds and Mary following God. The shepherds hear the news and they act with their feet, going to see it with their own eyes- how human is this? To want to be part of the scene, to want everyone to know the joy of it all. Mary hears the same things, yet she responds differently.

'Mary treasured up and pondered these things in her heart'. This phrase repeated again in Luke 2:51 after Jesus is found having been missing for three days. I think Mary has doubts. This is her son and sometimes the enormity of his journey is overwhelming. But she does what she can, she ponders, and always with the grace of total openness to what God wants of her.

I think it's significant that Mary treasures these things in her heart, not her head. Before I knew Jesus, I spent a lot of time pondering him in my head. I was trying to make sense of a story of the most radical love, which in my experience was never what I had found in church. I tried so hard to make sense of it in my mind, that I missed what God was doing in my heart.

Like the shepherds we can tell our stories, our experiences, share with one another our meetings with God. Like Mary we should let all these things move beyond our minds, to our hearts. We should ponder our doubts and our questions of Jesus in the same way we ponder our joy; like treasure.

Lord, thank you for joy that moves our feet and fills us with the desire to share you. But also thank you for the reminder of Mary; that all thoughts of you are treasure to be pondered in our hearts.