by Mona Lindeman
Mona is a dear friend of Coracle and active at The Falls Church Anglican. She gave this reflection recently to a women’s Bible Study.
Consider Mary of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph the carpenter, the mother of Jesus our Savior. What do we think when we hear her name? Humble young girl? Willing servant? My view of Mary has been limited to how she fit in the Christmas and Easter stories. Watching The Passion when it came out in 2004 enlarged my thinking about Mary and the deep, real emotions she experienced as Jesus’ mother and what it cost her to say Yes to God. But still, I hadn’t thought of her as Jesus’ first disciple until reading the chapter on Mary from Carolyn Custis James’ book, The Lost Women of the Bible. Starting at the bottom of page 179, the author provides a succinct description of the qualities Mary possessed which might entitle her to be called Jesus’ first disciple:
Mary was the first to believe and lay down her life for the gospel; the first to leave all to follow Jesus; the first to love him and minister to his body (as I read that I thought of Mary taking care of Jesus’ tiny infant body, his growing, always-hungry adolescent body, his suffering, crucified body and ultimately his body the church where in Acts we see Mary referenced as being with all the disciples, constantly in prayer after Jesus died); the first to hear and treasure his words (again I think of her hearing Jesus’ first sounds and words – Mama, Daddy, all the way through to his last words on the cross); and she was the first to share in his sufferings.
Mary’s mentioned about a dozen times in the Bible, starting with a reference in Isaiah to a virgin who would conceive the Messiah. Then we jump to the NT and we see Mary:
- Visited by the angel Gabriel
- Visiting Elizabeth her cousin
- Giving birth and subsequently visited by the shepherds and wise men
- Taking Jesus to the temple for the sacrifices when he was circumcised
- Losing and finding Jesus at the temple when he was 12
- Speaking to him of need at the wedding in Cana
- Coming with her other sons to take Jesus away from the crowds
- Suffering at the foot of the cross
- And praying in the upper room with the disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection
In most of the situations Mary says very little, yet there are incredibly descriptive verbs attributed to her. Through those verbs we build an understanding of Mary as a disciple. Obviously, Mary’s journey as a disciple starts with belief and believe is indeed one of the verbs describing Mary’s life When you look at the list, you’ll notice verbs that quickly come to mind when asked to describe a disciple – believe, of course, but also verbs like glorify, rejoice, constantly pray. All these verbs make sense to us in the context of being a disciple. Let’s consider together three of the verbs which seem particularly unique to Mary and serve as a model for our lives as Jesus’ disciples.
The three Mary verbs are treasure, ponder and marvel.
Treasure – What does the verb treasure mean? To value (something) very much, to collect and store up (something of value) for future use, to hold or keep as precious, to cherish, prize. When we read the stories of Mary, we see the verb “treasure” used two times and in both occurrences it is said that she “treasured all these things.”
The first occurrence is after the shepherds visited Mary & Joseph and described the appearance of the angels announcing the good news of the Messiah. As Mary treasured this she was probably also thinking back to Gabriel visiting her, Joseph’s dream, traveling to Bethlehem, the manager, Jesus’ birth. The second occurrence of the phrase “treasured all these things” is found after losing Jesus in Jerusalem, anxiously searching for him, finding him in the temple talking with the rabbis, the exchange in which he says he was about his Father’s business, their return to Nazareth and his subsequent obedience to Mary & Joseph.
What exactly did Mary treasure or cherish? How can we characterize what she treasured so that we might understand treasuring in our own lives? She cherished the events of Jesus’ unusual childhood; she treasured God’s acting in the lives of the humble and lowly like herself, her carpenter husband, and the shepherds; she cherished the outworking of God’s plans which she didn’t even fully understand. She treasured glimpses of God. How did Mary treasure these God glimpses? Quite simply, Mary “treasured all these things” by remembering.
Remembering is enormously important to God. God urges and even commands us to remember, probably because He knows how forgetful we can be. And also because He knows the joy we can have in remembering. He knows that remembering encourages our faith and with encouraged faith we are more faithful disciples. Consider these verses:
Deuteronomy 6:12 ESV Then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Psalm 77:11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
Psalm 105:5 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.
So by remembering, a disciple treasures the blessings of God, the glimpses of God, the evidence of God acting in our lives, oftentimes without us fully understanding.
What do we treasure? Well, certainly we treasure the many blessings of our lives. One of my treasures from our son Matthew’s childhood was coming into the kitchen when he was about 2 and ½. There were little wet footprints on the floor and up the wall above the dog dish. I asked him what had happened and he told me Jesus washed his feet. Truthfully, all I could do was walk out of the room, my hand covering my mouth so as not to erupt into laughter. It is a moment I cherish; I treasure. And I do that by remembering this glimpse of God in the mind of a small and sometimes mischievous child.
Often though I go through my day with eyes veiled, missing the opportunity to treasure something good of God. My dear friend, Virginia Watson, often says “there’s no such thing as an ordinary day.” I want my heart to be inclined in this direction, recognizing the extraordinary in each day, those moments that show me God. The good news is that God is in the business of opening blind eyes, of removing the veils. It was prophesied in Isaiah on more than one occasion that the Messiah would give sight to the blind. Isaiah 42:6-7 says:
“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
And we see Jesus do the physical miracle on several occasions in the gospels (John 9, Mark 8, Mark 10.) Just as miraculously, He opens our spiritual eyes. I love the prayer in Ephesians 1 starting at verse 17 where Paul says “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” We can know these things as God opens our spiritual eyes to daily glimpses of Him at work.
Not only did Mary treasure all these things but she also pondered all these things. Our second Mary verb, describing her as a disciple, is ponder. To ponder means to think about or consider (something) carefully, to weigh in the mind. Surely Mary treasured her time with her cousin Elizabeth but what might she have pondered, thought deeply about when she reflected on their time together.
Perhaps when she pondered those 3 months with Elizabeth she carefully thought about Elizabeth’s greeting when Elizabeth said “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” Mary might have felt a deeper sense of God’s love for her in those words than any others. Maybe they came at the exact moment her faith was wavering or a moment of fear that she would be rejected or not believed and those words whispered God’s deep love for Mary to Mary. Maybe she carefully weighed in her mind Elizabeth’s response to her pregnancy with the responses she had received from others when they learned she was pregnant. Through Elizabeth’s God-prompted response, perhaps Mary no longer felt alone and in that she remembered God’s promise to never leave her. We have evidence that her time with Elizabeth moved her deeply as her beautiful song of praise came after that time with Elizabeth.
So with Mary’s example, I ask myself, what do I treasure and what do I ponder? I treasure the gift of nature. Often I glimpse God in the natural world and I treasure those glimpses. My memories are flooded with vivid images of deer walking down the middle of our street in McLean, a bear lumbering down the street in Western MD where our family spends a lot of time, the bald eagle swooping to catch a fish right in front of our family, the bright purple stalk – 5 feet high- of a weed in the forest, an intricate spider’s web that caught me unaware. I treasure those memories and when I ponder them I am reminded that God loves me in big and small and unexpected ways. I ponder God’s creative power, His love of color and variety and uniqueness. I ponder that He is a God who is concerned for the smallest spider and the powerful eagle. I ponder that even if no one saw that purple stalk in the woods, God would have created it for His own pleasure because He loves beauty. What an amazing God!
The only time the word ponder is used in the New Testament is in relation to Mary. But in the Old Testament we see the word used a few times:
Psalm 64:9 All people will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done.
Psalm 107:43 Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.
Psalm 111:2 Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.
And, it seems to me that Paul is suggesting we ponder when in Philippians 4:8 in the New Testament he instructs us “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”
I shared that I treasure God’s creation and ponder His character through it but I often find my pondering to not be that noble. In our home there seems to a gender-specific gene that prevents putting socks in the hamper or dishes in the dishwasher or books on the shelf or shoes in the closet or trash in the wastebasket. If I’m not careful, I can begin pondering the great injustice of this, which causes me to either do it myself resentfully or complain about it or begin harboring anger toward the offenders or become a puddle of self-pity! So, I must check myself; am I pondering what I treasure? And because the answer to that question is not always pretty, I’m left turning to God. Just as I need His help to see the glimpses of Him at work, I need His help to ponder those above all:
Psalm 139:23-24 ESV Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 19:13 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
O God, help me to treasure and ponder what pleases you!
The last Mary verb I’d like us to think about is the word marvel. Marvel means to feel great surprise, wonder, or amazement. Luke 2 tells us that Mary & Joseph marveled at what was said about Jesus. Jesus’ mother and father brought him to the temple in Jerusalem to offer the required sacrifice in thanksgiving for their new son. While there, they heard words referring to Jesus as God’s salvation, as a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and as God’s glory. And they marveled at this.
As I think about our 3 Mary verbs, this is the one that challenges me the most. Do I marvel at the words about Jesus that I know from the Scripture? Am I surprised and amazed and in awe of who He is and what He has done and why He did it and what He continues to do? Or, have I become a little passive in thinking about Jesus? Have I made Jesus commonplace, ordinary, regular? Have I limited Him to fit my own small thinking? I want to be like Mary and marvel at what I know and see of God.
The Bible is full of words that describe God to us, that lift us beyond our own small understanding of God. And these words beg for a response from us – a response of marvel, awe, amazement. Psalm 103 is included as Appendix B. Read through the Psalm and marvel at our great God. Doesn’t it make our hearts sing?
In addition to the Psalms moving us to marvel at God, the names of God can do the same. There are lots of resources that compile the names of God in one place. Appendix C includes a compilation made by a pastor in which he collects the names and descriptions of Jesus starting with A and going to the end of the alphabet. Spend time treasuring, pondering and marveling at their breadth and depth and completeness. I’ve been using them as an Advent discipline, praying through and pondering one section a day. I hope you will be blessed through them.
Before closing, I’d like to share a glimpse of God in my own life that I have been treasuring and pondering and marveling at in the last couple of months.
I have suffered from migraines for years. They have seemed particularly bad in the last couple of years and I find myself frequently calling out to Him in desperation with the pain. But, in August when I had a severe migraine, I listened to a beautiful CD by Ruth Fazal given to me by a friend. I’m not sure I’d ever listened to the entire CD before but that time I did and the last song is entitled I Will Dance with You.
The song is sung as if God speaks first saying:
Come away with Me
Come and dance with Me
O, My Bride, come away with me…….
Come and dance with Me on the mountaintops,
O My Bride, will you dance with Me?
And then the response is:
I will dance with You, I will dance with You
O Jesus, I will dance with You.
I don’t have words to describe how my spirit responded to that song but in the midst of excruciating pain I felt God singing to me, asking me to come and dance with Him. And, my spirit leapt in response, even in the midst of the pain. I couldn’t get out of bed because of the migraine but as silly as it may sound, I lifted my arm and danced with God and my heart was full of joy. I marveled at the God of the universe speaking these words to me, and I continue to marvel because just a few weeks ago, God said the same thing to me again.
For 2014 I’ve been studying prayer, reading books on prayer, doing Bible studies, seeking to understand prayer and deepen my own prayer times with God. In October, my Bible study group went on a prayer retreat to Corhaven, a retreat center run by Bill & Tara Haley in the Shenandoah Mountains. Almost the first words Bill spoke when we arrived was that prayer was like dancing with God. My heart soared just hearing Bill say the word dance. In all my studying on prayer this year, prayer as dance had not been one of the themes. What a beautiful image of prayer for God to give me to deepen our times in prayer together!
When we had time in the afternoon to wander in the woods and by the stream at Corhaven, listening to God, I watched the leaves dancing as they fell and sang the lyrics of that song again and again. I tossed leaves into the air and watched them float to the ground and be carried away in the stream with the clear idea that God was inviting me on a dance that would sweep me along the currents of His making, going with Him according to His plans and purposes.
When I listened again to the song after my time at Corhaven I was struck by one line which says “O Don’t Hold Back, Come away with Me.” Even after these sweet moments with God, He knows me, He knows my tendency to hold back and He’s continually and gently encouraging me.
I shared this experience with some friends recently and afterwards one sent me a book, The Great Dance. I’d like to share a couple of lines from the beginning of the preface which have me marveling.
“There are two things that I have known for as long as I can remember. The first is that there is an invisible river flowing through this phenomenon we call “life.” It is a river of glory and abounding fullness, of passion and goodness, beauty and joy. As I have thought about it through the years, I have come to think of the river more as a dance, a great dance, which somehow is shared with us and fills our lives and all things, and at the same time, is constantly distorted. The second things I have always known is that this great dance is related to God. “
How kind of God to repeat His words to me of a dance and a river again, in another way!
Like Mary, I don’t really understand what all this means but I am treasuring these glimpses of God, I am pondering (considering, weighing what they might mean) and I am marveling that God would speak to me such a tender way. My prayer is that God would give each of us hearts that treasure Him, minds that ponder Him and His works, and lives that so marvel at Him that may we be worthy to be called His disciples. Amen.