Luke 1:46-49

Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.”

What an incredible moment this was for Mary! How could anyone put into words the overwhelming joy and privilege of being called to be the mother of the Saviour of the World? It is hardly surprising that she, as a young Jewish girl, turned to familiar words from the scriptures. She would have been brought up with the wonderful story of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, and would have been familiar with her prayer when she learnt that she was going to give birth. The words of Mary’s song, which is often known as the Magnificat, are extremely close to the words which Hannah had used centuries before.

There are many moments in our lives as Christians when we simply don’t have the words to describe how grateful we are to God. Like Mary, we often turn to other people’s words to articulate how we are feeling.

I thank God for the many songs and hymns that have become precious to me over the years. Many of them are firmly associated with a particular experience. Once, I had a long - and fiercely hot - journey across Romania during the Communist era. I was travelling with a disabled friend of mine and, as we passed through Transylvania, our van broke down. My companions and I were not great technicians but, to our amazement, we managed to fix it. As we travelled into Oradea, our destination, we instinctively broke out into song. We sang ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ - and we really meant it! We could have expressed everything we wanted to say in a prayer, but it felt so much more complete to join together in singing a hymn that was so familiar to us, and that bound us together with God’s people who had used it to express their worship over the years.

God loves it when we worship him, whether we use our words or borrow them from others. Mary’s song may have been based on familiar words from the Old Testament but there is no doubting that they were words from her heart, too.

Question – What song or hymn is particularly important to you?

Prayer – Thank you Lord for Mary’s song and for the way in which it encourages me to praise you for your greatness. Amen