What do you do with these days between Christmas and New Year? We’ve just put the tree up (I believe in the Christmas season so it will be up until February 2 :)) and the cats are pondering how to get the angel down from it!
Are these days for resting and pondering? There’s a verse in Luke chapter 2 we sometimes miss as it comes at the end of the shepherds’ visit to Jesus. We were told “Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.” I bet she did! Let’s ponder her journey. Visitation by an angel; explaining sudden pregnancy to Joseph; a nightmare journey to obey a tyrannical census to get home; nowhere to stay; giving birth in poverty and then some dirty shepherds turning up uninvited. There was much to ponder.
What was God’s plan for Mary? She was the God bearer. But that wouldn’t be easy. Look ahead. Soon to be a refugee fleeing a violent regime to keep safe. Getting exasperated when Jesus at twelve does a runner; counting to ten before speaking when he’s really rude to her in the Temple that day and later when she tries to help him at a wedding; having little news from him while he was travelling about; watching him die on a cross, crucified by pain. And yet, as the church is born, she’s still there. As well as the supreme example of faithfulness, I think of her as a deep thinker… a ponderer of what divine activity means.
Perhaps we need more pondering time. We rush about. We don’t wait on God. Very few of us stop and talk together asking what God is doing with us or deliberately get some space on our own to think deeply. I wonder where Mary did her pondering.
Like cats sitting by a tree trying to work out how to get the angel down, we need to try and work out where God is in our lives. If he really has become one of us, that takes some thinking about. Maybe a good new year resolution might be to ponder more before we make decisions… now there’s a thought! I have a one item Church Council after my service on 2 January to approve expenditure for a new dishwasher. Imagine what the reaction would be if I sent everyone away to a quiet corner to ponder first!!
I just plea for a bit more reflection in life because sometimes what’s thrown at us is too much and our head needs time to process stuff going on. If you’re too knackered on a bank holiday to ponder - then let your body, mind and spirit rest - believe me, there will be much to ponder in January! I love what one of the local pubs posted about an hour ago. Perhaps I’m here today if I’m honest and for a few days that’s okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment