Parenting: You make it up as you go along

Luke 2:8-21

It must have been quite surreal to be those shepherds in the field.  Angels and lights and such.  But the thing that sticks out to me is Mary's response.  She tucks it away into her mind, trying to make sense of it all.  She already had an angel visit her, and her fiance.  Oh, and her cousin.  And now these wild and crazy shepherds are telling about their experience.  Maybe she was going to expect it to always be like that...  Probably not.

But she seems like she was doing her best to make sense of the whole thing.  And I imagine she wondered at what her role would be.  It was all fine and dandy to give birth to the saviour of the world, but how was she to raise him?  She had many years ahead of her, teaching, loving, guiding.  I find it difficult enough to be a parent, let alone having to carry that burden.  I wonder how she handled it all.