Yesterday I was listening to a speaker discuss Mary and the song she sang while she was pregnant and “pondering in her heart” what was happening to her. We call the song “The Magnificat.” It is full of references back to the Psalms.
Mary had to have been stunned. Generations of Jewish women prayed that they would bear the Messiah, but for generations none of the men raised by these women turned out to really be the Messiah. Then Mary, not yet married and most likely quite young maybe 15, is visited by an angel who tells her that she will shortly become pregnant and the child will be a boy and the boy will grow up to be the Messiah.
Luke tells us that Mary ponders these things in her heart as she goes from this experience to many others and tries to make sense of what life means to her now. And naturally she turns to her Scriptures. Most likely she had memorized the Psalms. So as she begins to realize what’s happening, she turns to the Psalms to help her understand.
Mary shows us a path of wisdom as we seek to once again understand Advent. She turned to Holy writing and pondered what those writers had to say that was meaningful to her life.
Pondering? Simply holding those teachings in your mind, sitting quietly and letting God speak to you through them–or even directly. It’s not time for you to talk. It’s time to listen. And think. And imagine. Play the words over and over in your mind. See them from different points of view. Apply them to your life in your imagination.
You will gain new insights into what Advent means in your life this year.
Faith Venture 
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