The Magnificat

As a woman, I know that I have a tendency to look at my life experiences and project them on to God, especially when life has gotten very complicated. Men may have this problem too, but I’ll stick to what I know. When things are good, God is good, but when things are bad… sometimes I begin to wonder. Maybe there’s been a job loss, or relationships are falling apart, or savings are gone, or a family member has passed. I suddenly have questions about God not worship for Him and I’m tempted to run from Him not to Him.

If there’s one person in the Bible whose circumstances should have caused her to worry herself to death, it was probably Mary. There she was, planning her wedding, and then Gabriel showed up and changed the whole story. Now she was pregnant.

What would happen to her when she returned home? Would Joseph believe she was a virgin when it was clear she was with child? Would he marry her and then quit? Would he abandon her to be a single mom? Would her family reject her or would they believe that God was using her? Certainly she would be called a whore, a tramp, and an adulteress. She faced being stripped, beaten, mocked, spit on, and put before the town of Nazareth as an example. And on top of that, she wasn’t just pregnant, she would give birth to the Son of God!

Clearly Mary had a lot to be worried about. But it seems as though she skipped right over the worrying and worshipped instead.

Even though her life was uncertain, she wanted God to be honored and glorified. She wanted others to see through her life that God is good. In Luke 1:46-55, Mary praised at least 17 attributes of God. She praised Him for His position, His omniscience, His work, His personal nature, His holiness, His mercy, His power, His worth, His sovereignty, and the list goes on. Instead of taking a doubting and introspective look at her life, she looked at God and filled her heart with who He is and what He’s done.

Whenever I’m tempted to live within my experiences instead of the truth of God, I’m going to try to remember Mary. Mary looked first for the evidences of grace in her own life--"he’s done great things for me” (Luke 1:49)--and she praised God for it. But you know what she also did? She looked for the evidences of grace in the lives of others, and praised God for that too--"he has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53).

As I approach Christmas, I’m trying to identify the parts of my life that are distracting me and causing me to doubt. When I identify them, I’m committing to asking myself a series of questions: Have I worried about it? Have I worshipped about it? It might be my time to worship because of His grace in others. This is the joy of being part of a church family: we get to see God working!

Who is God? What has He done? Mary’s example of asking and answering those questions is well worth following.

Brooke Shorey