“Mary treasured all these things in her heart and always thought about them.” – Luke 2:19
During this holy night of Jesus’ birth, while angels were singing and shepherds were worshipping, the Scripture tells us that Mary “treasured all these things in her heart.” I wonder if she knew there could be tough days ahead and wanted to keep these precious moments secured in her heart, to keep reflecting on them when she needed to be reminded, to be focused, to be encouraged.
To treasure something means “to hold or keep as precious; of immense worth or value; to collect or store up.” Value is assigned – treasure is assigned. For example, my niece or nephew might draw a picture for me that I treasure – I place high value on that drawing – and I display it on my fridge as a precious work of art. You might look at it and only see poor artistry, figures that are out of proportion and a mishmash of colors. I have assigned it great value, but you haven’t. Whether it is a treasure or not is determined by the individual. Everything in our lives is assigned value by us. We decide whether it is precious or cheap, worth paying a high price or not, worthy of being stored and kept or thrown away and discarded. That is not pre-determined. It is personal. Have you ever heard the phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? One sees it as worthy to be tossed away, another sees it as worth being treasured away.
Like Mary, we also determine which memories, which words, which happenings will be treasured and stored up in our hearts. What has been stored up and treasured in your heart? What have you assigned value to? The truth is, we can assign value and hold on to hurtful things. We can treasure offense, gossip, disappointment, fear and shame. We can store them in our hearts and think about them often. This has been a difficult year in many ways, and maybe we need to re-evaluate (reassign value) what has been stored in our hearts.
The easiest way to do that is to simply think about what you think about. What do you remember or dwell on often? What do you tend to always think about? Those are the things you have treasured and stored up in your heart. It’s amazing how we often can be encouraged by many, but what sticks in our minds is the one rude comment. I pray we learn to stop giving value to what should be let go of.
When the days get hard, when the promises seem unsure, when the plan is unexpected, when the road is rough and the journey is long, may we have treasured His Word in our hearts, stored up all the memories of His goodness and joyous times, made space in our minds for the testimony after testimony of the faithfulness and flawless track record of our God… and may what we have treasured in our hearts and what we think about often fill us afresh with confidence, hope and assurance.
Prayer: Lord, I find it easy to assign value and to store up negative things in my heart. Help me declutter my heart from the bad and treasure all the good and wonderful. May I hide Your Word in my heart, and fill my treasure cove with all the goodness and wonder that You surround me with. Amen.
Rebekah Dawn 