I am reading an old collection of sermons by H.P. Liddon entitled “The Birth of Christ.” It starts with a look at The Magnificat, the prayer of Mary, newly pregnant with Jesus, when she arrives at her cousin Elizabeth’s house.
You can find it in Luke chapter one. It starts like this:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.”
(Luke 1:46-50).
I want to share with you a key observation Liddon makes about the first two lines of Mary’s prayer.
After being congratulated by Elizabeth on her pregnancy, Mary launches right in with exuberant praise.
She doesn’t respond first how we’d expect.
She doesn’t say: “Thank you Liz–it’s kinda crazy!”
She doesn’t say: “I’m still hoping Joseph will believe me.”
She doesn’t say: “I’m scared to death–what am I going to do?”
She praises God. First things first.
“To give God His due is not, with Mary, an afterthought; it is not appended to something related to her friends or to herself. In Mary’s soul, God takes precedence of all besides. And therefore in her Hymn, the praise of God takes the lead of all other topics…” (p.17).
Liddon then asks a challenging question of his readers. When something wonderful happens to you–what is your first response? Do you give God glory, or someone else? He suggests that our first response might look something like this (maybe with thanks to God tacked on the end as an afterthought):
“My soul doth magnify myself, and my spirit hath rejoiced in the efforts or merits which have at length been rewarded as they deserved” (p. 19).
Funny, not funny. Don’t we tend to look at ourselves, or at the other people around us, and first give credit there? I know I do.
I think this is an important reminder this holiday week.
Maybe at your house you do what we do on Thanksgiving. We like to go around the table and say what we’re thankful for.
While smiling and making eye contact with each of my children I might say, “I’m thankful for you kids.” Or my husband might wink at me and say he’s thankful for his wife. Or little ones may lick their lips and tell the cooks they are thankful for the pies.
I bet if we really thought about it, we know we should thank God, not just each other. He deserves first praise. He gave us every good gift: our kids, our spouses, our food, our jobs, our bookshelves with good old books.
But sometimes we don’t communicate that with as much clarity as we could. Let’s be like Mary this Thanksgiving and not be shy about our praise and give thanks first and foremost to our Lord.
“…for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.”
(Luke 1:49-50).
Happy Thanksgiving!