Feeling a lot like Mary...

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" ~Luke 2:19

I'm sure that most everyone who has heard the Christmas story read out of Luke recognizes this verse, you may even pretty much have it memorized because you have heard it so many times over the years. But do you really understand what it is that it is saying? I know that up until recently, I didn't. For many years it was just one of those verses that I sort of got, but at the same time, I was never really sure what exactly Luke was saying either. Then one day back about month and half or two months ago, I was talking to a friend and trying to explain to her everything that God had been doing in my life and in my heart, but I just couldn't seem to find the words to convey exactly what it was that I wanted to say. It was quite frustrating to say the least, but as I was thinking about it later, I realized that I was never fully going to be able to convey the depth of the change that God had been bringing about in me, b/c it was all inner heart stuff. So, for that person to even begin to understand where I was coming from, they would've had to pretty much become a part of me so that they could know my heart in the way that no one else besides you and God does. (which is obviously not possible.) Then all of a sudden, it hit me! BAM! Right upside the head. "This must be what the Bible is talking about when it says that Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in heart." After all, when God is doing some major heart work on you, there is so much going on inside of you that most of the time all that you can do is to treasure it up and ponder it in your heart. So that is what I have spent most of the first part of this year doing, being stretched, taught, challenged, humbled, convicted, blessed, and then treasuring up all these lessons and pondering them in my heart. It's been an absolutely extraordinary time, and I know that I will never be the same b/c of it. Has it been hard and at times, exhausting? Yes. But has it been totally worth it? Definitely YES. :-)