Treasure These Things

Mary's Heart

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."
Luke 2:19

Mary knew the Lover of her soul.

Did you ever have a question so long in the asking, and then one day the answer came with a smack across your forehead and a loud, "Duh!!"? I had that happen recently. I was watching my son behave precisely according to a secret his Creator revealed to me while he grew in my womb.

Mary Treasured These Things

Every time I read this passage about Mary, I would ask the same questions.

What does it mean that Mary treasured these things in her heart?

How did she navigate raising a boy with such a monumental destiny?

Mary's Burden

Didn't it feel like a great weight sometimes to be raising the Son of God?

Mary watched Jesus, knowing who He was and what He would ultimately do for mankind and the world.

Did she tell him the prophetic words that were spoken over him?

Wouldn't they have proven to be a burden to one so young?

Baby in Hands

Having received many prophetic words for my son while he was growing in my womb and after he was born, I again began to ponder these same questions about Mary's experience. This time, the questions took on even greater import as I held his tiny body in my giant trembling hands.

Do I tell him who he is?

Is it even my right to tell him his destiny?

Shouldn't he have the same privilege to choose as the rest of us do, without pressure from me?

Prophetic Destiny

Do I really know how to explain it all anyway?

Some days it did feel like a burden; a tremendous responsibility...

Coronation

Until the day Mary's secret dawned on me, the secret of treasuring all these things in her heart. That day, the slow and gentle rhythm, the gentle crashing of God's great love for me washed upon the shores of my anxieties, finally breaking through my fear and doubt. This gentle washing by His love eroded away the sands of my own human efforts to care and provide for my son a foundation I had no idea how to lay. As more and more of the grains of sand blew steadily away, I saw beneath them my Anchor, my Rock, my Lover, my Friend, holding me AND my son upon the bosom of His love.

It was then that I realized how Mary did it. She had no fear as she beheld her Son, the One who would save the world. The one difference between her and me was that before her boy was born, was that she knew intimately the One who loved her more completely than any other could. When He overshadowed her and impregnated her with His Life, all of her fear vanished. She was no longer alone, and she never would be again.

Knowing Smile

She was the Beloved, and when she "treasured these things in her heart," she was not alone in those moments. When she caught glimpses in her small Son of the Man He would become, I bet her lips turned upwards ever so slightly and a twinkle formed in the corner of her eyes as she gave a silent nod of assent to the Lover of her soul Who highlighted the truth to her. And in these moments of sharing secrets, I imagine that He comforted her with His gentle assurance of His constant presence in their lives.

Stewarding my son's destiny has taken on a whole new meaning since I had this revelation. I, too, have been overshadowed by His love and impregnated by His Life. I am not alone in raising my boy. I was chosen specifically to be his mother. We are both secure in the loving embrace of our Creator, and one day we will both look back and realize that we always walked firmly in our destinies.