“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 ESV)

What we keep hold of tells us a lot about what we value, and why.
In our house we’re doing some pre-Christmas sorting to get the house ready for family visiting and we have two large boxes labelled ‘Keepsakes’ which are full of stuff we want to hold on to. We might never look through those things again, or only very occasionally, but we value them as tokens and reminders of important people and events in our lives so we keep them.

In his gospel account Luke includes this little reference to Mary’s response to the shepherds coming to find Jesus. It’s almost a throwaway comment and yet it holds a wealth of meaning for us.

The English word ‘treasure’ used here is not the same as a casket of booty overflowing with gold coins in the original Greek. It’s more like our word ‘keepsake’.
Luke is telling us that Mary held on to the events of that first Christmas night when Jesus was born like a keepsake and pondered them in her heart.
Mary valued that event and so she held onto it in her heart. It had no tangible presence that she could store away in a box like she could with the gold, frankincense and myrrh. It was her personal experience of the overwhelming joy of others that she held onto, and only her heart could keep something that ephemeral safe from being lost.

Mary teaches us something profound through what she kept safe.
She valued the experience of joy that others had when they met Jesus for the first time. She shared their joy and was so moved by it that she stored it away in her heart and pondered it.

Jesus does this to people and he does it to me time and time again when I encounter him.
He breaks the ground of our ordinary lives and causes a fountain of joy to spring forth. Encountering Jesus is always much more than a sense of happiness – in fact I’ve had deep encounters with Jesus in profound suffering. Jesus releases something within us that starts to well up and overflow. That’s joy.

Mary’s response to me would be to treasure my joy and keep it in her heart and ponder it.
Is our response to someone encountering Jesus like that of Mary’s? Do we value it and treasure it and ponder it?

Without Mary’s treasuring we may never have heard the amazing story of that first Christmas night, or maybe it would have mutated in translation into something quite different. But the truth is that some ordinary people had their lives turned upside down when they met Jesus and the fruit of that encounter was joy.

This Advent may you encounter Jesus and experience that same joy of Jesus Overwhelming You.
May you be like Mary and treasure your joy and the joy of others and ponder it so that these stories of joy might continue to be told.
May you hear Jesus’ words, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11 ESV)