One of my favorite surprises in the Christmas story is that we keep checking in on Mary. The gospel writer Luke pays a great deal of attention to her. (So much so, that many speculate that the memories of Mary were a resource for Luke’s gospel.) In Chapter 1, we hear a conversation between this young girl and the angelic messenger Gabriel, followed by a long poetic, beautiful song, the Magnificat, which Mary sings in praise to God for raising up the lowly, poor and hungry. (You might infer that Mary herself knows what it is to be lowly, poor, and hungry.) And yet God has taken special notice of her and entrusted her with the holy duty and joy of becoming the Messiah’s mother.
In our verse today, Mary listens closely to the report of the night-duty shepherds. They heard the angels sing about the birth of the Messiah, pointing out how he could be found in a manger in Bethlehem. She hears about the Gloria sung by angels for her own child. Everything she hears fits with what Gabriel told her about the child. She adds it all up and keeps it all close to her heart. From time to time, in the rest of the gospel of Luke, we hear one of her memories of Jesus, and we hear that she “treasured” it in her heart.
As Mary mothers her son, she puts together this “memory-treasury” of her son: who He is, who He is said to be, His destiny and role, His character and actions. With each memory, she finds confirmation of what Gabriel told her: Her child is the Son of God.
I love that Luke pays attention to this young woman of no great importance—except that God found her trustworthy and important enough to bestow the keeping of His Son to her. I love that she treasures her thoughts about Him, which rings true to my mother’s heart. And I love that Mary amasses her memories and treasured thoughts together to help Luke make a full picture of her Son and her Savior. We do that, too, as we live with Jesus day by day. We add to what we know about His faithfulness, His power, and His grace, day by day. And if we, like Mary, treasure these thoughts in our hearts, our memories of Him will increase our faith and our strength.