Sit and Think
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19).
A farmer’s wife, concerned about Big John who always worked the fields nearby, asked him, “What do you do in your spare time?” He put his honey tanned hand on his chin in thought and replied, “Sometimes I sits and thinks and other times - I just sits.”
Obviously, this incident occurred before the advent of the internet. Had Big John been around today he might be an accomplished “couch potato.” Few things are more effectively designed to pass time without accomplishing anything while cramming the mind with emptiness than surfing the net. Shane Hipps in Flickering Pixels laments: “The internet creates a permanent puberty of the mind. We get locked in so much information, and the inability to sort that information limits our capacity to understand. The internet encourages the opposite of what creates wisdom - stillness, time, and inefficient things like suffering. On the internet, there is no such thing as waiting; there is no such thing as stillness. There is a constant churning.”
But there is great value in being still. Silence and solitude before God are great blessings to the stressed-out human soul. What extremely rare commodities they are today. Blaise Pascal, the brilliant French philosopher, observed, “I have discovered that much of the unhappiness of mankind arises from one single fact, they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.”
Mary, however, knew how to stay quiet in her own heart with God things. She and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem for a census. There was no room in the inn, so Mary and Joseph camped out in a stable. Redneck shepherds visited and brought stories of vast angelic choirs singing, “Glory to God in the highest and peace to all on earth who please him. A Savior has been born in David’s town, who is Messiah and Master.” All who heard the shepherds were impressed. The whole town was churning in excitement. Yet Mary found silence and solitude in her heart. She quietly “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).
And what momentous truths filled her heart! My child is not a mere Gerber baby but the all of God baby. Infant yet infinite - given to save us from our sin (John 3:16). This one is Wonderful Counselor for all who mourn or have lost their way. His mercy extends to me and my soul magnifies the LORD. On and on she went, locking up each thought in the treasure chest of her heart. She didn’t just sit - she sat and thought in Christ, mulled over his mercy and majesty.
My friend, this Christmas, master Mary’s secret. Sit still at times and think of treasures in Christ!
