What We Treasure

I have a little box in my closet.  In it are treasures of various kinds, mementos of people, events, and places that to others may not seem significant. But because of the impact those "things" represent in my life, I treasure them.  They are safely guarded in order to be revisited.

As the shepherds departed to tell everyone what they had "seen and heard" about this child and other people wondered about it all, Mary did something different.  Here is what Luke tells us:

8 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

It says she took what was happening and preserved it in the treasure chest of her heart.  That is what mother's do with their children.  They treasure each life step for them.  But it says she was also pondering these things.  It means she added this event to the internal discussion she was having about her Son.  The angel said she would bear God's Son.  Now the shepherds spoke of another angelic visit.  Later it would be the Magi.  Then at His dedication at the temple more than a month later Anna and Simeon would speak about Him to His parents.  Joseph and Mary were amazed at what was said about Him.  And Mary was told that her own soul would be pierced one day.  

A dozen years later they came to the Temple from Nazareth for one of the Jewish festivals and lost Jesus for a couple days.  They finally found Him in the Temple courts interacting with the Jewish teachers.  The teachers were amazed, taken back, by His understanding at such a young age.  When Mary chastised Jesus for causing such concern for her and His father, He asked a question.  "Why were you looking for me?  Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?"  You can read about all this in Luke 2 here.

It says once again that Mary took this incident and tucked it away in the treasure chest of her heart.  She kept adding to the conversation, savoring the reality that this Son of hers was really the Son of the Most High God just as the angel had said.  She was a mother treasuring the moments of her child but she was most importantly a servant who was treasuring the graciousness of her Lord.

It would be two decades later at a wedding in Cana that a problem arose for the hosts of the feast.  Mary presented the problem to Jesus.  They needed more wine and she asked Him to help.  She turns to the servants and tells them to do whatever He asked.  Where did she get such confidence that He could pull off the miraculous?  She had revisited her treasure chest over and over again.

What do you treasure in your heart?  What do you store away that is of value, that contributes to the internal conversations about your life?  Those treasures define us.

While we may treasure some "things" associated with our lives, the most important treasure must be our worship of the Son of God.  I encourage you to open your heart today and ponder with amazement what He has done in your life.