“Hindsight is 20/20” as the saying goes. We often read accounts in the Bible and we don’t stop to think about what the person was really seeing or feeling. We know the end of the story so we assume the person in the story knows the ending too.

Mary was a young teenager from the small town of Nazareth when an angel appeared to her. Yes, the angel told her she was going to have a Son. But he described the child as “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33)

Now if you were told by an angel of the Most High that your child was going to be a king, would you not think of palaces, thrones, scepters, crowns, ruling and government? If he were to sit on the throne of David and rule over the house of Jacob, would you not think of Israel and Jerusalem? 

Fast forward nine months and there is young Mary wrapping her son in swaddling clothes and laying him in a manger in a cave with the animals. Would she not wonder if it had all been her imagination, or maybe she failed in what she was supposed to do so that her son would be born in the palace instead of the stables? But then, in troops a bunch of smelly, rough men bumping into each other and being generally uncouth, but excited because here was a baby that the angels had just appeared to them and told them where to find him – this “Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) This baby would never have been available to the shepherds had he been born in the palace, but he was born in the world of the shepherds – in a stable. And Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2:19)

Mary and Joseph stayed in the town of Bethlehem – for was that not the town that David was from? And was not Jesus to sit on the throne of David? On the eighth day, Jesus was circumcised according to Jewish law. After the forty days they went to the temple for Mary’s purification sacrifice. Simeon met them there and prophesied over their son – not His kingship, but His destiny as God’s “salvation…a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel…this Child is destined for the rise and fall of many in Israel…a sword will pierce your (Mary’s) own soul also.”  (Luke 2:30-35) This did not sound wonderful and kingly. But Mary kept all these things.

Then the strange Wise Men from the East showed up at their house. These rich scholars with great treasures for gifts who prostrated themselves in the dirt in front of her tiny Son. Was this how he would be recognized as the new king? But no. An angel warned the Wise Men to not reveal who Jesus was to the ruling Herod and the angel told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt – far away from the throne the angel had told her about.

When they returned from Egypt, Joseph was told to take them back to Nazareth. Nazareth? A town in Galilee. A place where it was said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 

When did Mary realize that the throne of David was sometime in the far distant future and not for Jesus now? Was it when Jesus became a rabbi and started traveling around? Was it when she and her sons went to fetch Jesus home because everyone was saying He was crazy? Sometime after that Mary started traveling with Jesus and His disciples. Was she trying to understand the angel’s message? She kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

And then Jesus was crucified. All her dreams of living in a palace, being the king’s mother, and seeing her son sitting on the throne ruling Israel were pounded out of her with each hammer strike to the nails. Oh, the irony that ripped through her when the sign “Jesus, King of the Jews” was attached to the top of the cross. As she saw the soldier’s lance pierce His side, she felt a sword pierce her soul. It would seem that Simeon’s prophesy came true instead of what she remembered the angel telling her so long ago. 

When did she realize that the angel was not lying to her and that she wasn’t imagining what he was saying to her? When did she realize that the angel was telling her the end of the story before it ever began in her? Mary nurtured and grew a child in her belly for nine months and birthed Jesus, the Son of the Highest. But even more importantly, she carried the seeds of prophesy and nurtured them and grew them, never letting them wither and die, regardless of what things looked like. Because of this, she told her story and we have her accounts and we have her hope – the Hope of Glory. Her Son, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, whose kingdom will have no end.

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