Scripture: Luke 2: 1-14, 15-20 (NRSV)
DEVOTIONAL:
This advent season, my regular activities of work and life have had a little more of a frenetic feeling underneath them than usual. As my kids get older, I find our family having to craft tight plans for all our days to get everyone to their rehearsals and Christmas parties. Weekends have been taken up with preparations for and performances in pageants, festivals and music recitals, and we’ve even been caroling with our Sunday school groups. We want all this activity to spread joy and create powerful memories of the season that remind us every year of God’s place in our lives.
So when I read today’s passage, I was struck by Mary’s response to all the excitement she witnessed around the birth of the baby Jesus. The Angel of the Lord brought “good news of great joy for all people” to the shepherds, and they “went with haste” to find Jesus. They told everyone around them about the good news – including Mary. But she didn’t jump up and down like she’d won the lottery, she didn’t high-five everyone who crowded into the stable, she didn’t burst into song or do a victory dance. She “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”
Our faith calls us to treasure and to ponder. Today, as you prepare for the celebration of the Lord’s coming, I pray that you will ponder the words you hear and treasure them tonight, tomorrow and all year long.
Scripture: Luke 2: 1-14, 15-20 (NRSV)
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 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. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.