Great Plains Daily Devotional for 12/20/2021

Luke 1:39-55

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
    Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
    and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
    and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
    and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

This section of Luke's gospel is often referred to as the Magnificat. Magnificat is Latin for 'My soul magnifies the Lord', the very first line in this section of scripture. 

Mary responds to God's extraordinary call upon her life with joy, even though it comes with complicated social strings attached.  

She is engaged to a good man and the child is not his.
She is a virgin, but others do not believe this is so.
She has been told by angels she is to bear the savior, but few believe her. 

Read the scripture above a second time, then go to our Facebook page and answer one of the following questions:

A humble statement from a girl of God's chosen people but unimportant in every other way.  We know from scripture that the angels visit her, Joseph and the Holy Spirit comes upon Elizabeth in this passage.  Curiously there is no mention of Mary's parents. What do you think they thought of this situation?

If you read the Magnificat portion with a sense of wonder as if you are Mary working these thoughts out loud for the first time how does that change the meaning for you?

How can we too be filled with joy when faced with difficult situations?







 

Micah 5:2-5a
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45
Luke 1:46b-55