Gabriel making the Annunciation to Mary, by El Greco

Have you ever experienced a life-changing event?  I’m not talking about a new hairstyle or the official switch from Coke to Diet Coke.  I mean something huge like getting a new job and moving away to another town, or losing a close relative, or getting married.  I’m referring to those things that really do leave your life somehow indefinitely changed/different/not the same.  So…have you ever been through something like that?

I’m guessing that most of us have, though perhaps to varying degrees.  If you have then you know how big of a deal it is. Sometimes these can take place with such speed that it’s not until several days later that we can actually find an opportunity to sit still long enough and contemplate all that has taken place.  Life can be going along just fine and then, almost in an instant, something happens and things change.

When this moment comes and we do have the time to sit and think about everything that has happened we are often overcome with emotion.  These are times both of considerable analysis and tremendous feeling.  Anxiety, nostalgia, promise, confusion, hope, regret, possibility, trust-these are but a few of the things that can fill one’s mind when situations like I have been describing come about.

One such occasion - perhaps the greatest the world has ever known - was when a young girl’s life was changed by an unexpected preganancy.  This young girl’s name was Mary, the soon-to-be earthly mother of the Son of God.  We read about the things that happened to her in the early chapters of the Gospel of Luke.

She was visited by the angel, Gabriel, and told that the Holy Spirit of God would conceive within her a child that would be the very Son of God, and that he would reign upon the throne of David forever and that his kingdom would have no end (Luke 1:26-38).  She visited her relative, Elizabeth, and these things were further confirmed (Luke 1:39-56).  She gave birth to the Christ-child and was paid a visit by some shepherds who made pretty amazing claims about what had happened to them that night regarding the birth of her new son (Luke 2:1-17).

Needless to say, Mary had a great deal of things to think about.  Some incredibly life-changing things had taken place in her life over the last year.  That’s probably why the Bible says that she, “Treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)  Can you imagine what must have been going through her head?  The Savior of the World had just been born - and she was his earthly mother.  God in the flesh was her little baby.  It’s absolutely amazing to think about.

I encourage you this Christmas season to do as Mary did and “treasure up these things in your heart.”  Think about and be thankful for the provision that God has made in giving His one and only Son, Jesus the Christ, in order that we might know him through the forgiveness of our sins.