16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. (From Luke 2)
Can you turn your attention to a certain place inside your body? Last night I was on the treadmill. My knee was hurting, so my attention was most definitely right there. Typically our attention goes to the aches and pains that are occurring inside our body. For some, those pains go on and on throughout the day and night. Medication can take the edge off, muffle the pain for a while. It is possible that our attention to our insides will cause us to miss something going on outside.
At this point in the Nativity Story, young Mary was recovering from the very human act of labor and delivery. Deep inside her body there had been a radical and painful change. Not so long ago she was expecting. Not so long ago she was exhilarated. Now she's exhausted.
And then, company comes a-calling! Shepherds arrive, smelling like the sheep they watch. And they have quite a yarn to spin! They have quite a story to tell. They tell about a wild vision of angels, announcements and angelic singing. In particular, they look at this baby boy and make proclamation about him.
Mary treasured and pondered. She tucked those words inside her heart. She stored them for later use. She put them away inside her heart for a rainy day.
In the ancient world, the "heart", the seat of emotion, is about the center of your body. Your heart is pretty close to your belt line. That is where Mary pondered. As one who just delivered, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
If you go there now with your attention, and give yourself time to ponder... what comes to mind about your relationship with God?
A final and perhaps unrelated note: the picture below looks like a pencil sketch (although it's probably a wood-cut). Something maybe unique about this medium is that sketching is the act of drawing around something that exists; providing a place for it. Here, the artist has drawn around Christ, made space for him. The same is true today... we can't draw Christ so much as we can make space for him.
Merry Christmas friends!
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