Treasured
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
Luke 2:19 NIV
Is there anything more magical than watching your children’s eyes shine in the glow of Christmas lights? Every time we’ve driven through town after dark the past couple of weeks, my two-year-old son continually exclaims, “Look! More lights! Woohoo!” from the backseat, his enthusiasm contagious as he experiences Christmas in his fresh, childlike way. And I just want to take pictures of his every expression, write down every cute thing he says, and try to bottle up the joy he brings with every passing moment because I know these days are fleeting. In other words, I treasure him.
Every Christmas since the one just before my son was born, I have had a deep appreciation for this little verse about Mary. Tucked in amongst verses about angels and prophecies and miracles and glory-to-God-in-the-highest is this simple sentence about how the mother of Jesus felt about all this:
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 NIV)
And it is simultaneously the most ordinary verse and the most extraordinary.
It is ordinary because it reminds us that Jesus was a real baby with a real mother who loved and treasured Him just as much as I treasure my own son, just as much as you love your kids too. This verse speaks to all moms whose phones are constantly running out of space for all the photos you want to take of your child’s every new expression. We can’t seem to help ourselves sometimes! These kids are just so precious, aren’t they? Can you relate to what I wrote to my son in his baby book when he was approaching his first Christmas?
“…this year I am amazed by the idea of Jesus once being a 10-month-old, just like you are now, and wondering what He must have been like. Did He also wave at the trees and the sky, as you do? Did He also love banging things together to make loud noises? Did He get a mischievous glint in his eye and crawl away giggling when Mary said, ‘I’m going to get you!’ . . . Is it possible that Mary found Him as irresistibly kissable as I find you and that He returned the kisses just as you do on my cheek? . . . I wonder how Mary could even contain her love, when her son was the actual Radiance of Heaven.”
Jesus was completely human. He had ten fingers and ten toes. He drooled when he was teething. He had to learn to walk. He skinned his knees and faced all the same challenges our kids do. It is glorious to think of Jesus as God With Us, but it is just as miraculous to remember that He was human. This verse reminds us to treasure what Mary treasured – the Son of God as a child here on earth. Because He was a child, he can relate to our children’s temptations to sin and the difficulties of growing up. Our kids don’t need to wait until they are adults to be understood by Jesus or to look to Him as an example. As I wrote to my son in his baby book during the Christmas that fell six weeks before he was born:
“Always remember that Jesus knows exactly how you will feel in those challenges, because He too was a baby, a boy, a young man. That’s another miraculous truth of Christmas: our God and King is able to ‘sympathize with our weakness’ [Hebrews 4:15], having been human like us. Even as you are now – a little four-pound, kicking, rolling, growing, sweet baby boy soon to be born – He once was.”
We can follow Mary’s example of treasuring Jesus every time we find ourselves delighting in our precious children as we marvel at Christ’s humanity.
But we also see Mary pondering the meaning of all the miraculous wonders that accompanied Jesus’s birth. This is what makes this verse so extraordinary. She knew she was carrying the Messiah, that this baby she had just delivered would become the Savior of His people, as prophesied in the Old Testament. She knew He had a bright and inspiring future ahead of Him. But she may not have known the price all that glory would require. When she took newborn Jesus to the temple to be presented to the Lord, Mary was approached by the prophet Simeon who told her,
“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-35)
That sword pierced her soul the day she watched her firstborn son crucified on a Roman cross amidst taunts and humiliation. I’m sure Mary had dreams for her son, just as I have for mine. We think often about who our children will become, what careers they might have, how they might change the world. Their futures appear so wide open and bright, and we look forward to seeing them shine. But what if our children must one day suffer pain and rejection in order to fulfill God’s mission for them? Most leaders and inspiring figures in history became who they were as a result of loss, persecution, or difficulty. Jesus is no exception. He is worthy of praise and glory precisely because of the darkest day in human history – when the perfect Son of God was killed for our salvation. Just as Mary had to surrender some of her motherly hopes and dreams so Jesus could fulfill his mission, I know I will also need to surrender my son’s life to God’s plans for him. We treasure our children best when we entrust their futures to the God who made them. God has glorious plans for our kids’ futures, and if we take the time to ponder them as Mary did, we can intentionally point our children to the mission they were born for and to the Savior they were made to follow.
This Christmas, as you treasure your children with all the joy they bring to you as they delight in this happy season, remember to treasure Christ as well. Treasure Him by surrendering to Him your greatest treasures.
