Christmas Day, 2020 - Following Mary's Lead

This Christmas Day, perhaps we should take our cue from Mary. 

After the shepherds' visit, "Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). Mary pondered - reflected on, turned over in her mind - what the shepherds had told her about the angels' announcement. If fact, three different times in Luke's account, Mary is said to have treasured and pondered what she experienced: when she was greeted by the angel Gabriel (1:29), here after the shepherds' visit, and after the pilgrimage to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 (Luke 2:51). 

To treasure something is to recognize it as special - something more than the ordinary - not the run-of-the-mill kind of experience - something to be held onto - a gift. To ponder it is to hold it in our mind - turning it over and over - looking at it from first one angle, then the next - sitting with it, waiting and listening. To ponder is to embrace a posture of receptivity, open to the gifts that will be given. 

When we ponder something - sit with it, reflecting, waiting, and listening - we put ourselves in a position for the Spirit to speak to us. The Spirit gives us eyes to see beyond the surface of an event, ears to hear the meaning in the words. We are given the gift of in-sight - seeing beyond the surface into the heart of the experience. 

Through Spirit-guided eyes, ...

• we recognize the work of God in the midst of the mundane and ordinary - in an seemingly ordinary baby lying in an odd feeding-trough-for-a-bed. 
• we see beyond what is to what can be - will be - because of what God is doing.
• we see the beauty that filled heaven with joy at the birth of Jesus, causing it to burst forth into joyous song in celebration and praise.

And in seeing, we are drawn into the experience. We become more than observers. We become participants - in what God is doing, in bringing about the new that will be, in the joy that permeates all of creation because of who God is and what God is doing. 

Treasuring - pondering - sitting with - reflecting and listening and waiting - it is how we are drawn into the life-giving, life-enriching things God is doing. It is how we are changed, transformed into the likeness of the one whose birth we still celebrate these many years hence. 

Treasuring - pondering - sitting with - reflecting and listening and waiting - such is work of the Twelve Days of Christmas journey on which we embark.

This Christmas season, let's take our cue from Mary. Let's follow her lead. Who knows what kinds of gifts we will receive?!