Week 2, Wednesday—Luke 1:26-38
My Soul Gives Glory to My God by Miriam Therese Winter, 1987
My soul gives glory to my God, my heart pours out its praise.
God lifted up my lowliness in many marvelous ways.
Praise God whose loving covenant supports those in distress,
Remembering past promises with present faithfulness.
This hymn is the sweet song of Mary, the young unsuspecting girl who God chose to be the bearer of light and life—the very divine. How her life would change! While her immediate thought could have been of her reputation, she risked herself. She could have been afraid of being shunned by her village, the pain of childbirth, or being alone, but she showed courage. Of all of the many ways she could have responded to such a vision, she chose to respond in faith, and not only in faith, but in praise!
Mary is the point of pure innocence coming together with the divine in the best way possible. I do not mean innocence in the sense of naïve, immature, and ignorant. What I mean is the heart that is good seeing the good in others—the wisdom and gentleness Jesus spoke of in Matthew 10:16.
At this point, in the story of God’s redemption, Mary is the sacrifice. The hope for humanity rests with her. Her obedience to God should not be understated. Even after giving birth, her heart would be broken by the cruelty of the humanity her son would save, and her obedience would be rewarded by deep sorrow. This does not seem fair.
Then I think of all the other souls who have sacrificed for the sake of God’s redemption in the world. We read stories of these people who willingly risk life, status, and reputation, and we applaud them all the while knowing we would never make that same sacrifice. Today let’s remember Mary’s faithfulness that brought redemption to the humanity that would wound her very soul which gives glory to God eternally.
Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 1:38
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