In Luke 2, the gospel writer gives an account of Jesus & his family taking part in Jewish tradition. It’s really a beautiful account of a boy beginning to find his way in his culture and as a man, but also an account of God himself, in the flesh, taking his place as the savior of the world.

The thing that captures me in this text is what the writer describes at the very end. It is what every great story owns.

Pure emotion.

Not one that simply rolls through the scene, but one that creates a literal stopping point for thought and reflection. One I’m sure that welled up in Jesus’ mother for the rest of her life.

After a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem and a long, crazy roller coaster of emotional uncertainty for Mary, Jesus’ mother, He and his family are on the way home and the writer gives us a peak into a life we’ve all experienced in some way or another when he writes, “…his mother treasured all these things in her heart.”

Treasure.

She treasures his obedience.

His heart.

His focus.

His words.

But really, his person. Him, just him. A momma, loving her boy for who he is.

So pure, so real. So…us.

Tonight, it happened for me. No, I’m not a mom, but I am a daddy with a two little girls whose hearts are as pure as a freshly fallen snow. It happened when I read a note that Hayden left the tooth fairy tonight. She lost a tooth today and in anticipation, she left the the tooth and a note for the tooth fairy saying,

“Thank you for taking my tooth, in return I’ve made you one of my sketches.”

And here Susan and I found a beautiful drawing of a tooth fairy, my beautiful child had imagined and created all on her own. It wasn’t enough for her, simply to give up her tooth, she wanted to go one more step and give a gift to the fairy.

And her father treasured all of these things in his heart….