Let It Snow... Will it Snow?

Luke 2:19 NKJ "But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart."

Here in Western Washington we don't really get a lot of snow. So when we, do I love it... but what I hate, is all the hype of getting snow and getting none! Like a little kid, I anxiously await the snow to fall, looking out the window all the time, hoping to wake up to the muffled silence of white snow covering the front yard and the streets. The crazy thing is that just up I-5 one community got 23 inches! Here in Milton... zero, zilch, nada! I don't understand it.

How does this apply to the verse? Mary was visited by an angle declaring that she had found favor and was chosen to give birth to Jesus, the one who was promised to set all mankind free. Imagine the 9 months of questions, anxiously awaiting for this to happen, and wondering of what all that means. Who did she tell? Who could she tell that would believe her and understand? How could you keep something so amazing to yourself?

Then the time to give birth comes and there's no fancy hospital, but stable. No nursing staff, barn animals. No immediate family there to witness and share in the event, but unknown shepherds who were visited by a choir of angles. And when they found Jesus and told Joseph and Mary of how they heard of it, the bible tells us that she pondered all this in her heart. Did she really understand what was happening? Was she disappointed?

Of all the people that we think should have or could have been notified, these unknown shepherds received a singing telegram of the worlds greatest gift given to God. We don't even know their names. Why did they receive this incredible news (23 inches of snow), that all people were looking out their life's window, anxiously awaiting hope and relief?

In the midst of Mary's pondering, she still believed, and put her faith into action by doing her best to raise up her first born son, who happens to be Jesus (no pressure). For two years she is living on edge, being visited by the wise men who tell her that King Herod wants to kill Jesus and calls for the massive killing of all male children two years old and younger. Did Mary understand all that she was getting herself into?

Sometimes we experience the unexpected while anxiously waiting our expectations to come falling out of the sky! When the anxiously anticipation doesn't happen and we get the unexpected, we ponder in our hearts too. The economy takes a nose dive and our retirement is loss, we get notice that we are being laid off of our job, the doctor finds a lump that they aren't sure about, your teenage daughter tells you that she's pregnant, or your parents tell you that they are getting a divorce... all these things can lead us to not understand and to ponder: "God, don't you care? Where are you?"

The truth is; He's right there. We may not understand it, we may not be comfortable with it, but that's doesn't mean that God's not aware and doesn't care. God often gives us enough information to get us moving forward toward His plan because if we knew all the details, we would run the opposite direction. Christmas is about hope in the midst of uncertainty and questions. It will snow... a new day is coming, His faithfulness will come to past!

God, many of us are looking out our window of life, anxiously waiting for a breakthrough, an answer to our life's situation. In the midst of our pondering, may we never stop believing in the message of Christmas! There is hope for our finances, healing for our bodies, restoration in our relationships, the best to come for our kids! We look to You and believe... it will snow!