A Mother’s Heart

This is the second instance we read of Mary storing up things in her heart.  What were “these things” do you think?  Do you think she was reflecting back to the time when the Angel of the Lord told her she was pregnant?  Do you think she was reflecting on what her cousin, Elizabeth, had told her?  Do you think she was reflecting on the night of his birth?  I imagine she was putting the pieces together as she came into the full realization of the truth unfolding before her very eyes.  But she chose to store them in her heart.  Why was this?

Typically when something miraculous or wonderful happens to people these days, the first thing they want to do is broadcast it to the world.  Why didn’t she jump on whatever the biblical hotline was of the time?  But she chose to savor these things in her heart and talk to God.  What’s the lesson here for us?  There’s certainly nothing wrong with having spirit-led sisters who will lift you…encourage you…pray with you.  But is it possible that God is saying “I want you to keep this little piece of sweet intimacy between us for now.  I want you to get your understanding unfiltered through me?”

What has God put in your heart?  Are you okay with Him being your only confidante?  Is your meditation time all the more special as you share the innermost parts of your soul with Him?  Do you trust Him with all your vulnerabilities? My dearest, God doesn’t need this time with us but we need it with Him. Why?God already knows us.  He created us.  Psalm 139 says that “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” There’s nothing we can hide from God about ourselves that He doesn’t already know.  Conversely, there is so much about His ways that we do not know. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”  We seek Him and learn of His ways so that we might grow our understanding and gather all those thoughts within our hearts.

Lord, help us to have a yearning for your Word so that we might understand better your character, your love, and your purposes. It is challenging out here in the world, but we know that You are God and nothing moves without your guiding hand.  Keep us God and give us insight and wisdom so that we, too, may ponder these things in our hearts and draw closer to You.

Key Verses:

“Therefore he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart.  Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.”–Luke 2:51-52