Kept and Pondered

Lord, when You do something in our lives, our first urge is to tell somebody about it. The message is half written before we have understood what happened. We talk easily, and we stay on the surface. We would rather have something to say about You than sit in silence with You. Teach us the other way.

Mary had every reason to talk, and Luke tells us what she did instead: "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Kept is a storing word, used for holding something safe. The Greek word behind pondered means to put things side by side to see how they fit together. She had the angel's message, the shepherds' story and the manger, and none of it made a clear picture yet. Twelve years later, after Jesus stayed behind in the temple, Luke says the same thing again, straight after an honest sentence: "they understood not the saying which he spake unto them." Then he adds, "his mother kept all these sayings in her heart." Keeping is what she did with what she could not yet explain.

So give us her habit, Lord. Help us hold what You have done without needing to sort it out at once. Keep us from turning every mercy into a story to tell, and every wound into a lesson before we have even felt it. And ask us the question we would rather not ask ourselves: what have we been quick to explain, and never once turned over in front of You? Mary kept those things for years, and You were faithful to her all that time. Be faithful to us in the same way, and show us what we need to see in Your time. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 201 is Mourning Turned to Dancing (Psalm 30:11).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two