Tuesday, December 20, 2022

            It is almost impossible to imagine what Mary must have been thinking as the day of her son’s birth drew near.  Any mother-to-be is thrilled with the first sight and touch of her baby boy or girl.  Mary would have been no different.  Yet, she carried a very different baby boy in her womb.  Jesus was not only her son but God’s Son too.  What raced through Mary’s young and innocent mind as the days to Jesus’ birth counted down?  What would it have been like to make about a ninety-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem while on the edge of giving birth at any possible moment?  Some of us traveled between Nazareth and Bethlehem back in September in the comfort of a motor coach—imagine making that journey by animal or on foot!  And pregnant too!
            Near the end of Luke’s Christmas account, we read the following comment about Mary, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).  To ponder means to consider, to reflect upon, to work through or to work out in one’s mind.  Mary surely had much to ponder.  She was a new mom, a soon-to-be-newlywed, a woman who had just given birth and she was far from home.  And by the way, she had just given birth to the Son of God—the second member of the Holy Trinity.  Yes, there was much to work through and much to ponder.  What dreams did she have for her son?  What thoughts raced through her mind as she wrestled with whether or not she was up to the task?  She must have had the same worries and anxieties that all new moms and dads go through.  But she likely also pondered the joys of all that had just happened in her life...and the joys that would follow too.
            What do you ponder at Christmas?  What captures your thoughts and feelings as you read the Christmas story?  Maybe you ponder the enormous grace and love that God expressed to the world by sending His Son to be our Savior.  Maybe you are captured by the way God chose to save the world...not by armies or empires but through a baby born in a stable in a backwater town.  Much to ponder.  What do you pray for at Christmas?  Where do you seek the Lord in your life?  Where can God comfort, forgive, heal or renew you? 
            Christmas is about God breaking into the affairs of the world—to shatter all that we think we know with His undeniable truth.  Perhaps you are crying out for God to break into some aspect of your life.  Maybe there is a place of ache or longing that you carry.  Maybe you have carried this ache for longer than you would care to admit.  But maybe as you ponder what God has done, you find that you can release this ache or burden to Him once and for all.  I suspect Mary cast many cares upon the Lord as the majesty of Christmas night turned into the ordinariness of the next day.  Raising the Son of God never got any easier.  A few days remain before Christmas comes once again.  Take time to ponder—your life, God’s gift of His Son, where you have been and where you are going.  It has been said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Perhaps that is one person’s way of saying we need to ponder more so we roam less. 
            The Advent season is all about waiting, anticipating and, yes, pondering.  God gives us time to get ready for His Son’s coming (the first coming and the second coming).  Use the time well—ponder and pray.  Read the Christmas story today or the prophecies of Isaiah and others who tell of that history-altering night in Bethlehem.  And as you read, ponder, savor and cherish every word.  Let the Word capture you.  And let the Word drench the words you speak and the thoughts that you entertain.  May you treasure this Christmas that is coming.  And may you carry forward a new experience with the Lord as you ponder His coming.  Have a good Tuesday!  Join us for Christmas Eve worship at 6pm and Christmas Day worship at 10am.  And remember you can relive our Christmas musical at youtube.com/FirstBaptistKannapolis.