As Pink Impact 2009 came to a close, frustration, disappointment and anxiety began to set in. Reality told me that I couldn’t just stay here and sit at Jesus’ feet; I had to head home to business as usual. And I had no idea what a mountain top I was trading for all the mounds of things that would be at every turn.

Over lunch, a friend and I wondered, “What is a woman to do?” And I remembered the scripture that tells of how Mary reacted when her life must have felt like a cart being pulled by a runaway horse: “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). This passage had always been insignificant to me. Whenever I came across it I thought, “Oh how nice … Mary remembered this, and God took time to make mention of her.” But over lunch, I rethought my “Oh how nice …” and started believing that this verse is significant.

Mary was a very young girl, pulled into a very cruel world because of her purity and innocence. As God’s chosen vessel from whom the actual Son of God would take physical form and be born, Mary was in for a fight. No doubt with all the questions that must have surrounded her “unexplained” pregnancy, she had already faced many fights so far. Long before the moment when those shepherds walked into that stall, Mary was dealing with a seemingly ominous situation without any end in sight. On top of that, Mary and Joseph had to face the struggles and difficult decisions that would surely come from rearing this baby and walking through life with the incarnate God in their family.

As I talked with my friend, we both realized this scripture was speaking to us—all of us—saying to our hearts: “Treasure up all these things, ladies. Ponder the blessings of the moments when God makes Himself known, when the questions are answered, when the problems become worth the fight and when hope springs up in your heart that life is about something far bigger.”

Mary had the very essence of God dwelling in her world, actually in her family, but she still had to regularly choose for herself what her attitude would be. The grace and strength of the Lord gave courage to Mary as she soaked in all these things so that she might treasure them and refer to them as she faced the never-ending challenges that lay ahead. Based on her husband’s dream, she had to relocate first to Egypt and then to Nazareth. She had to raise the Son of God in their own home and somehow manage to keep the “secret” of the Messiah—something hard to do it seems, because when the neighbors were hit with a really bad snag at their wedding, Mama came to the rescue with her blessed inside pull. John 2:3–5 says, “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’”

As your encounter with the Lord comes to a close, be blessed by the treasures of your heart. As the Lord so graciously taught us by Mary’s example in Luke 2, think about such things—the blessings, the joy, the sense of purpose, the hope of glory, the life eternal, the love of Jesus, the precious gifts of your loved ones, the manifest presence of God you experienced at Pink Impact and elsewhere … these are all treasures.

Dianne Dunnagan
Dianne has traveled, studied and been involved in ministry for most of her life. She married her husband Craig at the age of 34 and is now a mother of two young girls. She lives with her husband and children in Mobile, Alabama, where she is active in both her church and community.