Readings for the Day:
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When I was in late elementary/early middle school, my family would read together this book during Advent called The Christmas Mystery. It’s basically about a magic Advent Calendar that tells the story of a young girl who travels backwards through time with a bunch of traveling companions on their way to meet the Baby Jesus.
The phrase that I remember from almost every chapter in that book is this: “she pondered it in her heart.”
This phrase, of course, is inspired by Mary. We hear from Luke that she pondered the events around her and around Jesus twice. Once is when the shepherds came on the night Jesus was born. The other is when Jesus stays behind in the Temple after Passover when He is 12 years old.
After searching for Jesus and finally finding Him, His parents chastise Him. But Jesus asks them why they did not realize that He would be found “in [His] Father’s House?” Mary again ponders what has happened in her heart.
To ponder means to take in and observe. It requires being open to what is going on around us. It is the tool for us to start letting God in more fully to our hearts.
The Christmas Mystery helped me first reflect on what it means to ponder the mysterious workings of God in this world, and it took its cue from Mary herself. My hope is that you will follow Mary’s example too and become a model for pondering to others so that we all might come closer to God.