Luke 2:19 “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
Luke 2:51b “…And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.”
As a mother, I find these verses to be very precious. The first verse comes right after the shepherds visited Jesus and the second verse is right after Mary and Joseph lost Jesus and found him in the temple after searching for him for days.
There are just things your children do, things people say, things that happen, and things I feels as a mother that I just “store” in my heart. I know I’ll use them later, or at least remember them later. They affect how I interact with each child and it’s not always something I can explain, It’s just something I know. Some of this stuff gets written down in their baby books, if I can figure out how to put it into words. I want them to know it when they’re older.
Each child has their own unique birth story and their own unique life and I constantly look forward to the next special thing to add to who they are as I see them.
As I read these verses I’m always reminded of how my children were born, how I felt at that moment, and what affect it has on me and how I relate to them.
My mother’s first child was a stillborn so my entire first pregnancy I was pretty worried. I tried hard not to worry because there’s really nothing that worrying can do for me but still, I worried. So, when I went into labor and had the report from my midwife that she had a good heartbeat, I was relieved. Somehow, I held it together when my water broke and it was green (my mom’s was green with her first), but we still had a heartbeat so I knew it was ok. I can’t even describe the relief and joy of holding my first child, hearing her cry, and just knowing that she was healthy. To this day, she’s still extra special to me, and I’m just so grateful that God gave her to me.
My second child was just very unhappy to be born. I don’t know if she disliked the birth process or was just hungry after my whole 2 hour labor but I just remember her crying and crying the minute she took her first breath. I held her close to me and she cried, and cried, and cried some more. I was almost in tears. Finally I fed her and she was happy. To this day, I just can’t take it when she cries. My husband teases me about it, but there’s just something inside of me that melts when she cries, just like the day she was born.
At about 30 weeks pregnant with my 3rd child I had this crazy dream about his birth. I never could remember the exact details of the dream, I just woke up and remembered 3 things, he was born early, he was perfectly healthy, and he was the most adorable baby ever. Which may explain why I was the calmest of the 3 adults present when he was born 5 minutes before the midwife arrived. He was completely healthy, and he’s the cutest baby I’ve ever seen. Maybe my feelings were stronger from the rush of delivering my own baby, but I’ll never forget how I felt just holding him for the first time and looking at him and thinking just how precious and adorable (and cute!) he was.
My children are all young, so I just store these things up, ponder them at times, and wait for the day when it all makes sense.