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A String of Yeses
Our Daily Bread
“Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her
heart.” – Luke 2:19
Luke 2:15–19 (NIV)
In Luke 2:15–19, we see
several responses to God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus.
The shepherds responded by
believing and then acting on their urgent desire to see what God had done (verse 15).
After seeing Jesus, they
shared the news (verse
17), which the people
responded to with amazement (verse 18).
But Mary’s response is
arguably deeper than all of these responses, and likely one Luke intended to be
a model of faith.
When
Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (verse 19), she continued a long tradition of God’s people responding to
His revelation by internalizing it in their hearts through ongoing pondering or
meditation (see
Psalm 119:11; Proverbs 3:1–3). By: Monica La Rose
One Christmas, my
grandmother gave me a beautiful pearl necklace.
The beautiful beads glowed
about my neck until one day the string broke.
Balls bounced in all
directions off our home’s hardwood flooring.
Crawling over the planks, I
recovered each tiny orb.
On their own, they were
small. But oh, when strung together, those pearls made such an impression!
Sometimes my yeses to God
seem so insignificant — like those individual pearls.
I compare myself to Mary,
the mother of Jesus who was so fantastically obedient.
She said
yes when she embraced God’s call for her to carry the Messiah. “‘I am
the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled’” (Luke 1:38).
Did she understand all that
would be required of her? That an even bigger yes to relinquishing her Son on
the cross loomed ahead?
After the
visits of the angels and shepherds, Luke 2:19 tells us that Mary “treasured
up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
Treasure means to “store
up.”
Ponder means to “thread
together.”
The phrase is repeated of
Mary in Luke 2:51. She would respond with many yeses over her lifetime.
As with Mary, the key to
our obedience might be a threading together of various yeses to our Father’s
invitations, one at a time, until they string into the treasure of a
surrendered
life. By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
What yeses do you need to say to God? How can you learn to be more obedient?
What yeses do you need to say to God? How can you learn to be more obedient?
Dear God, help us to respond,
one yes at a time, to Your ongoing work in our lives.
Bible in a Year: Nahum 1–3, Revelation 14
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Luke 2:15-19 New
International Version (NIV)
“15 When the
angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s
go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told
us about.’
“16 So they
hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the
manger.
“17 When they
had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about
this child, 18 and all who heard it were
amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
“19 But Mary
treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
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