‘The promised word the Lord has revealed to us will surely be fulfilled!’
While meditating on the passage, “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us’—so they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known what had been told them concerning this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”) (Luke 2:15–20) — I want to receive the lessons given while meditating on these words:
(1) When I meditated on this passage, I became particularly interested in and reflected on what the shepherds said to one another: “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us” (Lk. 2:15).
(a) The shepherds, who had been keeping watch over their flocks at night (v. 8), were suddenly visited by an angel who stood near them and the glory of the Lord shone all around them; they were very (or “greatly”) afraid (v. 9). After hearing from that angel the “good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (v. 10)—that “today in the town of David a Savior has been born for you; he is Christ the Lord” and that “you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger; this will be a sign for you” (vv. 11–12)—it is interesting that they then said, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that the Lord has made known to us” (v. 15) and “went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger” (vv. 16–17).
(i) The interesting point is that the shepherds said the “good news of great joy for all the people” (v. 10) which “the angel” had announced to them was something “the Lord had made known to us” (v. 15).
· In other words, they accepted in faith that the Lord had informed them of this through the angel—that the “good news of great joy for all the people” (v. 10) namely “today in the town of David a Savior has been born for you; he is Christ the Lord” (v. 11), and “as a sign you will find a newborn wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (v. 12, Contemporary English Version)—was something the Lord had revealed to them.
- Therefore the shepherds, wanting to see what the Lord had revealed to them (v. 15), “with haste” (v. 16) “went to Bethlehem” (v. 15), “and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger” (v. 16), and saw it (v. 17).
(b) When I reflected this passage back onto myself I asked, “What is the thing the Lord has revealed to me that has been fulfilled?”
(i) When I asked that, I remembered that today, September 26, 2025, in celebration of my beloved first son Dillon (Seung-gwan)’s birthday I sent the following birthday message to a family group text of six: “Happy birthday my son Dillon. I am grateful for you in my life. May our truthful and faithful Lord continue to bless you and your family, Jessica (and future children?), and use your family to bless others.”
· The reason I sent that birthday greeting to my dear Dillon was that as I was composing the message I remembered that the meaning of his English name “Dillon” is “truthful and faithful.” I thought of the time when the Lord graciously gave Dillon to the two of us as a precious gift and named him, and I believed that the Lord has been at work faithfully and truthfully in Dillon’s life so far—bringing him to this day.
- After our first child “Joo-young” (meaning: the Lord’s glory; English name “Charis,” meaning ‘grace’) fell asleep (died) in my arms, my wife and I longed for another child but she could not conceive. In the Lord’s faithfulness and truthfulness, in His perfect timing He enabled my wife to conceive Dillon, and we experienced the Lord’s restoring love. Seeing Dillon grow strong in body and spirit (cf. Lk. 1:80; 2:40), and now obey the Lord’s calling—studying at seminary and serving as an evangelist in the church, aspiring to be a pastor like me and my father—I, as his father, cannot help but confess in faith, “Indeed the Lord is truthful and faithful!”
(ii) In addition, when I asked again, “What has the Lord revealed to me that has been fulfilled?” I remembered the abundant love of God that the Lord allowed my wife and me to experience through the births of our beloved daughters Yeri and Yeeun—Yeri prompting a confession of God’s abundant love, and Yeeun leading us to confess that “God is love!” (1 Jn. 4:8, 16).
· I also remembered Psalm 63:3, which the Lord made known to me through the death of our first child Juyoung: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” And I remembered 1 Peter 5:10, which the Lord reminded me of during Yeri’s suffering: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
- Just as the shepherds “with haste” went to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus lying in the manger (Luke 2:15–17), the faithful and truthful Lord opened the eyes of faith for my wife and me so that we could see how Psalm 63:3 and 1 Peter 5:10 had been fulfilled in our lives.
n Therefore I confess in faith: “The promised word the Lord has revealed to us will surely be fulfilled!”
(2) As I continued to meditate on Luke 2:15–20, I again focused on and pondered the verse “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (v. 19).
(a) I had previously been led to meditate on this verse; at that time I considered it together with Genesis 37:11 and Luke 1:66: “But his brothers were jealous of him, while his father kept the saying in mind” (Gen. 37:11), and “And all who heard it laid it up in their hearts, saying, ‘What then will this child be?’ For the hand of the Lord was with him” (Lk. 1:66). I wrote a short meditation titled “Keep it in your heart”: “Even when you do not fully understand the words of a loved one, treasure them in your heart and keep them.”
(i) In Genesis 37:11, Joseph’s brothers envied him, but Joseph’s father Jacob, though he did not fully understand Joseph’s dream (v. 10), kept the matter in his heart (v. 11).
(ii) In Luke 1:66, people had spread the report about John the Baptist’s birth, because Zechariah, John's father, had been unable to speak after the angel’s message (v. 20) until the naming on the eighth day (v. 59). When Zechariah wrote “John” with a writing tablet (v. 63), his mouth was opened and he praised God (v. 64), and the news spread. “And all who heard it laid it up in their hearts, saying, ‘What then will this child be?’ For the hand of the Lord was with him” (v. 66).
(iii) In the present passage, when the shepherds told others what the angel had said about the baby Jesus (v. 17), “all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them” (v. 18), but Mary, the baby’s mother, “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (v. 19).
· The Greek word for “treasured up” (συνετήρει) resonates with the Hebrew shamar (שָׁמַר) meaning “to keep/guard,” reinforcing the biblical pattern of protecting what is precious—whether tangible possessions, prophetic words, or divine revelation. In Mary’s case it signifies that she safely kept and guarded the testimonies of the angel and the shepherds deep within her heart, and she chewed on their meaning, seeking to understand God’s will (Internet).
- Concrete meanings:
Keeping in the heart: Mary did not simply hear and forget what happened that day; she fixed it deep in her heart and treasured it.
Deep reflection: Beyond mere remembering, she contemplated the significance of the events and how those words might relate to things that would come to pass.
Seeking God's will: Mary tried to understand through these events what God’s providence and plan were concerning herself, the baby Jesus, and humanity as a whole (Internet).
(b) As I again meditated on the statement that Mary treasured and pondered the angelic and shepherd testimony (Lk. 2:19), I want to share several short meditative notes I had written earlier on related themes:
(i) We should treasure in our hearts the words and works of God that our understanding cannot fully grasp (Lk. 1:66; Dan. 7:28; cf. Gen. 37:11).
(ii) We must listen attentively to the words the Father speaks. We should guard those words so they do not depart from us but remain deeply lodged in our hearts. Above all we must guard the heart that holds God’s word, for from it springs the wellspring of life (cf. Prov. 4:20–23).
(iii) When we hear God’s word through those who proclaim it, we should receive it well and live according to it, holding it deep in our hearts. Even if suffering or persecution comes because of that word, we should not fall but stand firm on the rock of faith and bear fruit thirty-, sixty-, and a hundredfold. (cf. Mt. 13:19–23; Mk. 4:14–20).
(iv) We should keep the word we heard from the Lord deeply in our hearts so that we do not drift away from it (cf. Heb. 2:1).
(v) One way to keep the Lord’s word in our hearts is to allow the Lord’s teaching to instruct us amid suffering, to examine his teaching carefully, and to meditate on his lessons (cf. Ps. 119:11–12, 15).
(vi) The disciples of Jesus treasured the words given by our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Isa. 8:16). We must cherish and always remember the Lord’s twofold commandment—“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”—keeping them precious in our hearts (cf. Deut. 11:18; Mt. 22:37, 39).
(vii) We must keep God’s commandments in our hearts and teach them to our children. If our whole household obeys these words, God will fulfill the promises he made to us so that not only we but also our descendants will enjoy lasting blessings (cf. Deut. 11:18–21).