"What Did Mary Ponder in Her Heart?"

“What Did Mary Ponder in Her Heart?”

 

So the shepherds went quickly and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in a feeding box.  When they had seen Him, they told what the angels has said about this child.  Everyone was amazed at what the shepherds said to them.   But Mary treasured these things and continued to think about them.       Luke 2: 16-18

 

Every mother, thinks of their baby as a “special” child.  One who will do GREAT things, one who will make the world a better place for ALL people.  One who will bring LOVE, and JOY into their family and to others who are blessed to know them.    I’m sure Mary was like that too.  She was curious about this bundle of flesh and blood that she cradled in her arms.  She remembered what the Angel of the Lord told her about her firstborn son.  And she knew that His birth was very unique, but did she KNOW the battle He would have to fight for the SALVATION of mankind?

 

The Scripture tells us that, when Jesus was born, and after the visit from the shepherds, Mary treasured all the things the shepherds had told them about her child, and she PONDERED or MEDITATED on them.  

 

Let’s fast-forward to the Hill of Golgotha, the place of the skull.  And we see three crosses with three men, one hanging on each cross.  The cross in the middle holds the Son of the Living God, who is beaten and bruised beyond recognition.  He has breathed His last breath and His body is being removed from the cross.  They gently lay His bloodied, beaten, and nail pierced body on the ground.  Mary, goes over to the body of her first-born Son, kneels on the ground, weeps deeply from her broken heart, and as the tears run down her cheeks, she takes a shaking finger and runs it across the bloodied, swollen, thorn-pierced forehead of her child, immediately she thinks of the tiny babe that she had cuddled in her arms, not one mark on His tiny pink skin.  Her fingers traces the outline of His bruised, and swollen lips.  Lips that had kissed her cheek, lips that had prayed to His Heavenly Father, “not my will, but thine be done!” 

 

Her fingers moved down His arms and to His nail-pierced hands.  Again her thoughts go back to those tiny, pink fingers that instantly closed around her fingers. The little hand that clasped hers tight as they walked through the streets of Nazareth.  The hand that brought HEALING and LIFE to poor, sick, dying people.  The hand that had even RAISED some from the dead.  Then she moves to His nail-pierced feet, she weep as she puts her hands on His feet, and thinks about those tiny, little toes, that were pink and oh, so tiny.  Feet that ran as He played, feet that carried Him from place to place.  Feet that had walked on top of the water.  As Mary gazes at her Son, she remembers the message that the Angel of the Lord gave her that day in Nazareth, that she would give birth to the SON OF GOD, and His name will be JESUS, for He will SAVE His people from their SINS.    Have you been SAVED from your sins? 

 

If you have NOT given your HEART and LIFE to God, then you are NOT SAVED from your sins and you are headed for an ETERNITY in HELL, the place of UNENDING HORRORS, and with NO WAY OF ESCAPE.  You MUST TURN AWAY FROM your sinful lifestyle and TURN TO GOD with a TRUE REPENTANT HEART, CONFESSING your sins to Him, asking Him for His FORGIVENESS, BELIEVING, with ALL your HEART, that Jesus died for YOU, and is ALIVE in Heaven, making intercession for you before God, then ACCEPT His gift of SALVATION, and BE SAVED from your SINS, JESUS PAID the PRICE. Do it NOW, while you still can.  He’s waiting and coming SOON!!!