Luke 2:19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
Famous people are usually disappointing once you get to know them. It seems to be true that when you meet famous people they are shorter than you anticipated, not as smart as you thought, or not as handsome or beautiful as you expected. That makes the Christmas story all the more amazing, that an infinite God would not only come in the form of man, but that He would not hide that from our view.
In the Christmas story in Luke 2 you find a great contrast between Who God is and how God the Son came. It is not something hidden from our eyes, like God was thinking, “Well, if people see God the Son as the babe in the manger, perhaps they will think less of Him because He is diminished.”
Let me give you an example. In Luke 2:10 the angels said to the shepherds, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Every time you find an angel talking to people in the Bible, the first thing they always say is, “Fear not.” Why? It is because seeing an angel is a spectacle beyond what most people have ever seen. I think it is probably hard to impress on one not just how amazing God is, but also His mere messengers, these angels.
In contrast to the amazing announcement of the birth of Christ given by this angel who was joined by a multitude of angels, the angels say unto the shepherds, “And this shall be a sign unto you…” What was the sign? Was it some miraculous thing? No! It says, “This shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.” What? That was the sign? Herod had literally every sign in the book and rejected Jesus Christ. These shepherds were given the sign that they would find the babe in swaddling clothing lying in a manger.
For people like us who see on a superficial level, what impresses us is that he was born in a stable. A palace would have been no better compared to Heaven than a stable. But, so that we would understand what Christ did and the humility with which He came, this is how it went down.
When the shepherds came and found Mary, Joseph, and Jesus and told them their story, “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Why? I think it caught her up short. She had been given an angelic announcement about God’s Son, the Lord Jesus, but we may forget that after that amazing announcement there were nine months where there was nothing amazing happening.
Then, after those nine months and the birth of her baby, here are these total strangers, the shepherds, who come out of the dark and night. Mary doesn’t know them. She has never read the Christmas story. These shepherds tell Mary and Joseph this magnificent story of an army of angels giving the announcement. I don’t think she had forgotten Who this child was, but between the first angelic announcement and the shepherds coming, there was nothing spectacular that had happened.
Later on in the chapter, the Bible says that the child Jesus astonished the doctors of the law by His understanding and His questions. And again in verse 51 it says that that amazing child, God the Son, was subject to Mary. He was in obedience to Mary and Joseph. “He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.”
Mary stopped, thought, and pondered. Why is that? It is because we are not comprehending Christmas if it does not catch us short, if it does not take away our breath, if it does not strike us with how impossible God coming in human form is. People talk about the Virgin Birth and how impossible that is. The Virgin Birth is miraculous, but it is just the means by which the truly miraculous happened. God came in human form. If that could happen, then what is the Virgin Birth or any other miracle you can read of? The truly amazing thing is that Emmanuel, God with us, the Savior, was born in human form. It should strike us as impossible and supernatural.
The contrast is between the plain, quiet way in which a little baby was born and the magnificent Christ that was preexistent to that birth. It is an amazing contrast, and if that does not strike you as impossible, supernatural, and miraculous, then perhaps we are so accustomed to the Christmas story that we are not thinking about what it actually means.
The bottom line is that we ought to be impressed and in awe with Who God is and grateful for the way He came.