If we could feel the quiet joy that Mary felt that night,
We’d celebrate Your coming in a new and different light.
Breathe calm into our frantic rush, help us Your peace to know.
Poet Lloyd Larson captures the essence of what we desire during the busy holiday season, and Luke gives us the key to capture what we want. “Quiet joy” comes as we learn to “breathe calm.” Mary went still—she “pondered”—so she could treasure all that was happening within and outside her. Her understanding was incomplete but that didn’t stop her from living fully. Angels appeared, shepherds told an unbelievable story, foreign visitors brought unbelievable wealth—people and events that just didn’t enter the life of a Jewish village girl. But when they did come, Mary gracefully—and gratefully—accepted all from the hand of God.
Early in her pregnancy, when her cousin Elizabeth pronounced the great things God was doing, sang, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Perhaps here is the key to Mary’s quiet joy: she learned that the Lord, her God and Savior was the center of her life. We too have the privilege of quiet joy when we learn a similar lesson.
