I don’t know about you but sometimes God just puts a verse
on my mind and in my heart that I can’t let go of. For the last week or so, I can’t get this
one out of my mind, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them
in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) I have read
this verse at least 1000 times. However,
I don’t think I’ve ever “pondered” them in May.
Nope, I’m pretty certain the only time I’ve ever read or pondered this
verse is in December (you know, as part of the “Christmas story”), which is why
it struck me odd that it just kept sticking in my mind lately. This morning it hit me like a rocket as I realized where this verse was leading me! I have committed myself to praying for two
friends in particular during this season in their life. My sweet friend J has twins that are
graduating in just a couple of weeks and will be leaving in a few short months
to go off to college. My other dear
friend KB has one son who is graduating from high school this month, another
son who just graduated from college last week and he will be getting married in
a few days. WOW! That’s a lot of stuff for those two women to
ponder!
As I pray for these ladies each day, I can’t help but
think about that verse in Luke. “Mary
treasured up ALL these things and pondered them in her heart.” I think back a few weeks ago to Michael’s
last soccer game of the season. As the
game ended I turned around to see some of my soccer mom peeps visibly
upset. After seeing them, I was very
glad that I had not stood up and given a great big “woo hoo, soccer season is
over!” It took me a minute to realize
they were crying because they had just witnessed their son’s last soccer
game. And as I think back to their
faces, I know they must have been treasuring up their son’s last game and
tucking it away in their heart with all the other first’s and last’s.
I love this
commentary that I read, “Mary kept all these things - All that
happened, and all that was said respecting her child. She
"remembered" what the angel had said to "her;" what had
happened to Elizabeth and to the shepherds - all the extraordinary circumstances
which had attended the birth of her son. Here is a delicate and beautiful
expression of the feelings of a mother. A "mother" forgets none of
those things which occur respecting her children. Everything they do or suffer
- everything that is said of them, is treasured up in her mind; and often she
thinks of those things, and anxiously seeks what they may indicate respecting
the future character and welfare of her child.”
So I guess the truth is, as I’ve been praying for my
friends and the changes ahead for them I can’t help but think of the things
I’ve treasured up too. Before Michael was born and there was only an
Abbie, I wondered how I could ever love another child as much as I did her. I
wondered how you divide your heart between two children. Then Michael came along and I got it – your
heart doesn’t divide, it multiplies and then you wonder, how is it humanly
possible for a heart to love this much?
And mixed in the love, you start treasuring it all up. I know that is what J and KB are seeing right
now – everything they have treasured up.
What a beautiful slide show they must be seeing! I suspect that after huge milestones like
these ladies are facing, once again God starts growing our hearts a little
bigger, making room for all the new things to be treasured up! I hope to one day sit on the back porch with
these sweet friends, drinking a glass of iced tea and talking about “remember
when the kids…..” and then after we finish our tea and have stopped giggling
like school girls about “those” days we’ll talk about how wonderfully blessed
life has been even when we were going through those emotional milestones. Of course, that whole back porch story is
assuming I remember where the back porch is, how to get there and don’t fall and
break a hip on my way out the screen door! Life is good.
Treasure it up.
