Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Mary had some dramatic experiences. She found that God had a plan for her, that her son had a special calling, that a hostile world was out to get him, that strangers would be attracted to him. In order to understand what all these experiences meant, Mary had to “ponder them,” think about them, pray about them, meditate on them. There is a common expression that “experience is the best teacher.” That is not true: rather, reflection on experience is the best teacher. Like Mary we must take our experiences in life and “ponder them” in our hearts. We must look through the experience to see the hand of God at work.
