Luke 2:19 – But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

THEME OF THE DAY: BEING MARY-LIKE THIS CHRISTMAS. Well, it has come. Christmas weekend. The next few days will be full. Family gatherings reach their zenith. Church services for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be attended. Perhaps last minute shopping will occur. Whatever unfolds in our lives, this whole thing started long before this weekend. The world, the Christ-less world, started cranking up the “holiday season machine” in November, if not late October. And the world pulls out all the stops when it comes to this time of year. Lights and decorations turn houses and yards into brilliant displays. Streetlights are lined with wreaths and candles. The transformation all around us cannot go unnoticed. I didn’t even mention the stores and malls. Though I never made my way to a store or mall this year, the memories of crowds and displays from past years is enough to remind me what it is like out there; a busy concrete jungle ensnarling people with the vines of consumerism and materialism. And what goes without saying, but I am saying, is the noticeable absence everywhere of the whole reason why we have Christmas – the Lord Jesus.

As I drove through neighborhoods and communities, I saw all the painstaking light displays on houses and yards, but I didn’t see one manger scene. Sadly, I saw a whole lot of Santa Clauses, reindeer, snowmen, candy canes, packages, and even some inflatable dinosaurs decked out in elf hats, but not one symbol or display pointing me to why we have Christmas. The world has stolen Christmas for a long time and Christians are not immune to this act of robbery. Did it get you this year? As this weekend comes upon us, did the world dominate your Christmas preparations? Will this coming Lord’s Day, which happens to be Christmas, be a celebration of the Word become flesh or more of the world of flesh? As Christians, we have already displayed where our Christmas was heading by our actions before today. We focused either on a world-based or Word-based Christmas. And it will come to head in a couple of days. But if we have been “hijacked” by the world this Christmas, it is not too late to be released. It all begins with being “Mary-like”.

Today’s scripture is toward the end of the “Christmas story” found in Luke’s Gospel. The shepherds have arrived at the stable. The scene is abuzz with activity and excitement. It would be easy to get caught up in the moment, like us in the world today, but not Mary. The Word says, “But Mary” . . . and reveals to us a contrast of reaction. Let’s consider three things Mary did concerning the birth of the Lord that serves as an example for us, not just at Christmas, but in living the Christian life.

First, Mary treasured up the truth of Christ. The word “treasured” means “to preserve, to protect, to defend” and reveals Mary’s inestimable value she placed upon Jesus. To maintain the wonder of Christmas, God in the flesh, and to keep that wonder alive every day AFTER Christmas, think long, hard, and deep on the value of Jesus Christ. Don’t cheapen Him by not meditating upon Him as revealed in the Word. That leads to the second truth we see in Mary to follow as an example.

Mary “pondered them” or meditated upon the truths of the Savior before her eyes. Friends, mediation is not a nice thing to add into the Christian life. It is essential in the Christian life. Reading alone doesn’t put truth deep in our souls. Meditation does. To neglect the development of this spiritual discipline is to consign ourselves to spiritual immaturity and a Christian experience tossed to and fro by the winds of the world.

The final thing Mary did which will help us keep Christmas Christ-centered, and our lives as well, is she put these truths “in her heart.” It is one thing to know the truths of God in the head and another to have them in the heart. Head knowledge never transforms a life into a worshipper of God. Head knowledge enflaming the heart does. Mary valued Christ, meditated upon Christ, and it took deep root in her heart. And as we follow her example this weekend and beyond, the same transformation will occur in us. The results will be Christmas being CHRISTmas, and the Christian life, being the CHRISTian life both lived under the centrality of Christ.

PRAYER: “Lord, protect me from the danger of having a more worldly Christmas than a Word-based Christmas”

QUOTE: “Busyness is a friend of worldliness and both will destroy one’s spiritual life”