Luke 1.46-47
And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
This passage from Luke
shows Mary’s joy and acceptance once she finds her peace with God and peace with
her current circumstances. Mary needed Elizabeth to show her the amazing work
God was doing through her. Once Mary realized that she trusted God and had
faith that she was being taken care of, she found joy through God’s work.
Adam Hamilton makes an
interesting point in his study of this verse. He says that joy can come
“independent of our circumstances”. I think that this is an important point for
this time of the year, especially in our culture. We, as a whole, put more
emphasis on the desire of expensive, unnecessary things, thinking that if we
just have one more gift that will give us joy instead of trying to find joy
without a materialistic component. The materialistic element of our culture really
does a disservice to us during this time of year, and sometimes we need other
people to point that out.
A couple of weeks ago, I
was trying to think of what I was going to ask for, for Christmas, and
ultimately I gave up. I started thinking about the people we saw in Costa Rica
on the summer mission trip, and I thought about how by American standards they
really would have nothing, but they were happy anyway. They found joy in the
little things that had nothing to do with the circumstances they found
themselves in. They trusted that God would provide for them, and that he would
do good work through them. I came to the realization that I really did not need
or want anything store bought for Christmas, but I did want to spend time with
my friends and family because I usually do not get to see them as much as I would
like during the school year.
Sometimes we, as a
society, need people or situations to remind us to find joy in the little
things in life like spending much needed time with family and friends. These
people or situations also remind us of the importance that we trust that God
will always be with us and will be working through us so that our souls
“magnify the Lord” and our spirits “rejoice in God”.
Mackenzie Johnson, Junior
at Booker T. Washington School of Performing Arts, Youth Action Council Program
Representative
