But Mary treasured up all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
From the gospel of Luke.
Following my previous post, exploring an equine behavior about which horse people have speculated and horse trainers have recognized as the horse’s licking and chewing response. In working with horses you’ll note their licking and chewing action after stopping to take a commercial break in a training interaction or a release in pressure.
Is the horse reflecting? … pondering?
For the scientific perspective on this equine behavior, check out my previous post. https://lindsaygriceridingcoach.com/how-horses-learn-licking-and-chewing-what-does-it-really-mean-to-a-horse/
This one’s more philosophical…
The Christmas announcement to Mary, a 1st C Jewish young woman , the news that she was pregnant with the long awaited Messiah, was received with mixed emotion. Puzzlement. Alarm.
Then she chewed on it – as a horse might.
And she paused to ponder it all: the historic prophesies she’d learned by rote; the odd visit and excited accounts of random shepherds; the input of some wise and godly seniors she encountered; the implications of the hardship and the honour of her new calling.
She strung them together, like treasures – all she’d been taught, heard and seen.
Then, her pondering turned to resignation and with further reflection, bubbled over into a song of joy.
Pondering takes some effort, with the phone in our pockets ready to fill every crack in our days with its opinions and images. Treasuring takes some silence.
I’m still chewing on the reflections of Pastor Kevin Loten from last week:
Why is God so quiet? I’ve learned in my own life, sometimes painfully, there are some words and expressions in the deepest parts of who we are that we are trying to find. And they can only be found and formed in silence. Silence is, in fact, part of God’s vocabulary; part of God’s language.
May you find a break in the Christmas buzz, in the stress of our digital culture and uncertainty of our world events to carve out a place for you to pause. To chew on things. To ponder and to treasure.
From the carol Oh Little Town of Bethlehem:
How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts, the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
where {pondering} souls receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.