TIME TO PONDER
But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. – Luke 2:19
I hope you’ll join us for worship tomorrow. It’s not going to look anything like you remember – but then, that’s in keeping with how 2020 has generally been. Still, worship this year will be something you need to experience. Whether you come to the parking lot at the Lake at 5, 6, or 7 pm for a brief, blended Christmas service (don’t forget your candles for Silent Night!) or enjoy one of the online services, it will be a meaningful service and an important part of our celebrations of Christ’s birth.
I keep going back and forth about all the changes, struggles, losses, and blessings of this year. Many of my incoming Christmas cards express a great desire to see 2020 disappear quickly and be forgotten. I’m not ready to move to that so quickly. While this year has been hard, and the losses nearly incalculable, we’ve learned a great deal about who we are and who God calls us to be. Even this Christmas season forces us to ask ourselves what is most important, what is most valued, and what we’ll miss most (and what we’re most ready to release) about this time of year.
One of the most beautiful and stirring lines of the Christmas story in Luke is this quiet note about Mary. After her beautiful Magnificat, the song she sings in Luke 1, we hear almost nothing else from Mary. There’s just her expression of anxiety in Luke 2:48 about Jesus having gone missing for three days. (I think I would have had more than a verse’s worth of words for my own kid in such a circumstance!) Even in the birth story itself, Mary says nothing. We get just this picture of her thoughts: she treasures everything being said and holds them in her heart to consider, wonder, and reflect.
Perhaps this model might work for you as well. What might it look like for you to ponder these moments in your heart without deciding immediately whether they are good, bad, or to be forgotten? How might you treasure this liminal time, finding whatever beauty there is in a Christmas without crowds and pageantry? How could different worship services, different celebrations, and different schedules invite you into hearing the Christmas story in a new way this year?
May God’s words come to your heart in a new way this Christmas, and may you have the space and time to ponder them for the treasure they truly are.
Let us pray:
I come before you, God, ready to hear your words of promise in Christ, our coming Savior. Keep me from despair and judgement, and instead, tune my heart to wonder and hope. Lord Jesus, quickly come. Amen.