Journey to ChristmasSample

Worship in the waiting

Today we reflect on the second half of Mary’s song of praise, often called the Magnificat. Her moving description of God has been read, meditated on, prayed, and sung for centuries since. 

Mary sings her song as a young, unmarried, pregnant woman from an oppressed nation. The themes she touches on – mercy, humility, satisfying the hungry – are like a foretaste of her Son’s ministry.

Wow – these are potent words describing an active and powerful God who spans generations, favours the vulnerable, and keeps His promises!

Mary’s song describes the tenderness of God towards the vulnerable. Where do I feel vulnerable? I invite God into those parts of my life.

Pause and pray

Who needs the tenderness and protection of God right now? My elderly neighbour? The men and women who sleep rough on the streets of my city? The families quietly struggling with the financial burden of Christmas? 

I ask You, God, for Your loving presence and intervention in their lives.  

Pause and pray

What strikes me about Mary’s song is not its theology or eloquence but its timing. Mary isn’t singing this song at Jesus’ birth. She’s singing it while she’s pregnant – while she’s waiting.

I wonder what role Mary’s worship had in bringing God’s plan into birth in her life…

What do I feel pregnant with at the moment? What might come to birth if I worshipped like Mary?

Lord, I choose to see Your goodness and greatness, even when my life feels neither good nor great. Help me live this Advent worshipping You for what You’ve given me in Christ, and what You’re yet to give me, and to the world when He returns.

Amen.