Luke 2: 19-20 "Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!"
Luke 2: 51-52 "So He went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people."
The shepherds shouted.
Mary was quiet.
The difference? The shepherd's revelation, and the realization of that revelation, had been completed. Mary's revelation was complete, but her realization was still in process.
So it is when God Calls and reveals.
During the incubation period between revelation and realization, we are called to quiet contemplation, to patient trust.
It's not about you. God didn't give you a calling to make you more significant, successful, or prevalent. He called you to glorify Himself, not you.
This is the patience of the pure.
The quiet confidence of the wise.
Secrets are powerful.
Mary and Joseph together held the most powerful secret calling the world had ever known.
Mary never stood on her calling.
She kept it hidden and deep, and made it a place of quiet communion with the One who had Called.
Let's not cheapen or sell our calling to buy attention or status among mankind.
A calling from God is first privately patient, then publicly obvious.
