pondering

"The best things in life comes to those who wait." I find some truth in that from Scripture, in Jesus. Mary, Jesus' mother, is said to have pondered what was said about her son, Jesus, at his birth, as well as storing in her heart what Jesus did and said as a twelve year old. In that is a good precedent for us all. And I have to wonder if Eve would have been taken in and deceived by that old serpent, the devil, if she would have pondered God's word to her.

I may understand some difficult sayings in Scripture and elsewhere from people of God, in some sort of superficial way. Words are important, conveying concepts, and we can't minimize them, because God gave them to us through humans, and directly- as the word of God. So we need to use our minds in seeking to understand.

But we also have to understand that though our minds are a vehicle, in its nature, God's work is revelation from God. We don't get there simply through a mind exercise, but in a relational sense. Scripture is God's living word not only when it was given through the human writers, but also to human readers and hearers, now.

Pondering involves meditation. And we're to meditate day and night on God's word. We keep doing so as those who are seeking to hear and understand better God's revealed will to us. And in that pondering, we're also to be endeavoring to seek the Lord. This pondering is relational at its core.

For me this pondering is important. I take one of my Bibles at work, and lay it out to a specific passage on which I'll meditate, or ponder. I do so often by memorizing, or working slowly through a passage. Due to the nature of my work, memorizing is good, or going over the same passage and lines over and over again, as I do my necessary work. Like Mary, there's a reward as we keep after it. I can remember my pondering being as dry as can be, but by the end of the day I understood something of the reality to which God in Jesus was calling me, through that Scripture. A light was shining in my heart for the pathway of my life in Jesus.

What thoughts might you like to add here?