Magnifying God, even when we don’t see the whole picture

If you were to guess, what is the all-time most popular Christmas song in the world? The one that has been translated into more languages than any other? It is a song called the “Magnificat” and it is sung by Mary as recorded in Luke 1:46-55.

Now I’ve done multiple sermons on the Magnificat, so there is a lot that could be said but what I want to call your attention to is how it is an example of faithful prayer. The Magnificat starts with Mary magnifying or glorifying God. It is called the Magnificat because that is the first word in the Latin translation, but the point here is that it is great to start our prayers by magnifying or glorifying God. Magnifying God helps put everything else in perspective and we see that in Mary’s prayer.

If you read the prayer or song, you will see that when Mary talks about God, she uses the past tense—even though Jesus hadn’t been born. But Mary has enough faith to pray as if all that was promised had already been accomplished. And despite her own circumstance as an out-of-wedlock pregnant teen, she “magnified” God and from that perspective could pray in complete faith.

And if Mary could pray that way we should too.