Now and then, when reading St. Luke’s Gospel, the phrase that sticks out to me is: “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). As this edition of Anglican Life will be released on the eve of the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord, the words of the birth narrative very strongly come to mind. As any parent is quite well aware, there is a lot of pondering and wondering in their lives as they ponder and wonder about their children. Mary was no different. She would have pondered and wondered as she watched Jesus grow up. Except in this case, Mary knew that there was something different about her child, and it came to fruition not only when Jesus began his earthly ministry in public but also from looking at his life—looking at his birth with the adoration of the shepherds, the proclamation of Simeon and Anna, the visit of the Magi, and the turning of water into wine.
In her pondering and wondering, I am certain that the words of Simeon, in stating that a sword would pierce her own soul as well, came flooding back to her when she stood at the foot of the cross, when she saw that Jesus was pierced, and the sign of death flowed as blood and water appeared. These are only the thoughts of a mother—thinking back on her life and the life of her son, and knowing that her child was different but yet, in his humanity, was the same as one of us.
When I was growing up, there was one song which was popular in the 1990s, sung by Joan Osborne, entitled “What If God Was One of Us”:
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us,
Just a stranger on the bus,
Tryin’ to make his way home?
The thing about pondering and wondering is that, in the pondering and in the wondering, we come to the realization that God, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, is one of us. Not only is God one of us, but he is trying to make his way home in us. In God trying to make his way home in us, he brings us closer to God in the process. That is what happens in the pondering and wondering of Mary. This is what happens when Simeon sees the child and makes such a bold statement of faith as in the Nunc Dimittis.
As we celebrate the light of Christ in our lives on the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord, let us make room for God so that not only is God finding a way home, but we find our home in God as well.
