Luke Chapter 2

In my Bible reading yesterday, I turned to the gospels to read the Christmas story. I settled on reading Luke Chapter 2, since it is the most complete account of the birth of Christ with the most detail (I am a details kind of person). One verse in particular stuck out to me: "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." People in Bethlehem were a hustle and bustle, full of wonder at the birth of Christ and spreading the word about this child. Until now, I haven't stopped to think about Mary's point of view. A young bride-to-be, a virgin who was pregnant, and just delivered her baby in a dirty stable full of animals without the help of an epidural or a midwife or some ice chips to get her through. And then, she pondered these things in her heart.

What must she have been thinking about? I know after I gave birth to Phoenix, I was a mess of emotion for months to come. Joy, tears, uncertainty, happiness, sadness, you name it, I felt it. And some emotions felt like I was feeling them for the first time. But with Mary, she was no ordinary woman, and Jesus was no ordinary son. Did Mary know who Jesus really was? The One that Isaiah prophesied would be "Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace"? Did Mary know that Jesus had only just entered into time, yet had existed outside of time and had created the world she lived in? Did Mary understand that Jesus had knit her in her mother's womb many years before, and yet also had just come from her own womb? Did Mary know that her baby boy was the Word made flesh? She couldn't have possibly thought of what would happen more than thirty years later, when she would witness her baby boy dying on the cross to save her own sins.

Wow, the Christmas story is so rich and full of meaning. How tragic that this world has robbed it of its depth. People rushed and frustrated, trying to buy all the right gifts for all the right people. The presents, the holiday rush, the distractions. I struggle to accept this type of Christmas that stresses and hurries to buy all the right things, get the best deals, have the best decorations and worry over things that shouldn't worry me.

Christmas this year has become very still and quiet for me. I cannot have it both ways, I've discovered. Either I celebrate what I say I do, the birth of Christ, or I celebrate the American Christmas. I never felt I had to choose before. But now I feel the Lord calling me to make Jesus the center of my life, especially the center of my holidays. Jesus takes up my whole heart and He will not share His glory with another. When He is the focus of my life, there is no room for the things that don't matter. "For God has...called us to live a holy life." 1 Thessalonians 4:7.