The Lost Art of Pondering

Have you ever read something or had a thought and immediately forgot what it was? No, it isn’t necessary a sign of dementia or Alzheimer’s. Rather it simply may have been that you’ve never learned the art of pondering.

To ponder in the Greek means to put one thing with another. Webster’s defines it as “To weigh in the mind, to put one thing against another, to review mentally, to think about, to examine carefully.”

To ponder means to take the time and store these thoughts and important information deep within the recesses of our hearts and minds.

This was Mary’s testimony when she heard the shepherds tell of their experience.

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

Later, when Mary and Joseph found young Jesus in the temple, He said, “Didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house and about My Father’s business,” and it says that Mary “treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:49, 51).

Mary knew how to ponder. She stored up those things she had experienced, seen, and spoken to her and kept them safe and secure within her mind and heart. She mulled them over and processed them the same as someone who would continually pull out and count their treasure.

She weighed them over and over thinking deeply about their significance, and drew upon them later in life. This is seen in Jesus first miracle, turning water into wine. When the wine was finished she told Jesus, and while Jesus said His hour had not yet arrived, she told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).

Pondering is a good thing to do, but it takes time and discipline. We need to close out the world for a while and let our minds review the things we’ve seen and heard, and allow them to continually speak about Jesus and inspire us to continue on this journey of faith.