MY HEART IS FULL…

One day, several years ago, my husband and I had our oldest granddaughter along with us in the car. It had been a busy day and she was very tired from all of the exciting things we had done as a family during the time of our short visit. All of a sudden she had tears flowing as she was telling us a story. Asking her why she was crying she simply said, “my heart is full!”

A simple but precisely said statement: My heart is full! Have you ever had moments where you were trying to take it all in, to process everything that was happening right before your very eyes. Was your “heart full?” Maybe that is part of the gift of how God made us as women.

We treasure up all of these things and ponder them in our hearts.

I found myself doing the same thing the other morning. When I first got up I noticed an unusual stillness to the world outside. Looking out the window I could see the blanket of snow that had covered our little world the day before. It was still on the ground with a thin layer of frost glittering on the lake as the snow and ice did a little dance on the water. It was mesmerizing! I stood there a while reflecting on the contrast of the calmness that this morning brought with it, as compared with the hectic-ness we had going on the day before.

We were busy preparing for our children and grandchildren who were heading home for an early Christmas. The counters were covered with pots and pans, wrapping paper was piled high, we were excited and busy. Yet today, all was calm. You would never know the wrapping paper and dishes had ever been there. Instead, what is left behind is the beauty and stillness of a crisp dawn, as well as, a living room full of wrapped packages and a refrigerator filled with food, all waiting for our loved ones to arrive. In a way, it is reminiscent of the days when we still had little ones at home. We were always as excited as they were waiting to see their little faces come Christmas morning.

I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Pondering the span of time from those first Christmas’s until now seems to have been such a short amount of time. Again, I must use my granddaughters words, “my heart is full” as I try to grasp the magnitude of the details, both large and small, heartaches and joy-filled, that God has seen to throughout these precious lives. Especially now, as we see the new little ones, we have the ability to trust their lives to His care because we see what He has already done through the years. My heart can’t contain the enormity of what God’s abilities can do. It is the reason I continue to treasure up all of these things and ponder them in my own heart.

Could this be what Mary was trying to comprehend so long ago? Was her heart full as she continued walking the path her God had entrusted to her. She was watching everything the angel had told her unfold right before her eyes. The result, Jesus, her Holy treasure was lying in her arms. “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) What a magnificent plan she had seen. From the angel’s, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke1:28) until she heard the words, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High…(Luke 1:31-32.) All of this had been difficult to comprehend especially since she had never been with any man. Yet, the angel’s proclamation came true, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

When I look back on these words in scripture, I cherish the connection with Mary. It brings truth to our lives even today. It’s my desire to grasp the significance of hearing God’s plan, especially when the words come through the Holy Spirit, filling my heart. This goes beyond the spoken word, and once more demonstrates how God is, and always has been, a God of details. For in the midst of the most Holy and sacred moments in time we can still understand the fullness of a woman’s heart as we read these words:

Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

(Luke 2:19 NIV)