Monday, December 23

SOMEONE IS PRAISED

Luke 1: 46-56

     M.A. Matthews, in the story, “The Gift of a Child,” tells of looking out the living room window one snowy December day.  There, in front of the church across the street, workmen were just completing the construction of the nativity scene—even as the snow was swirling through the air.  The school bell had just rung and hundreds of children made their way down the street.  A number of them stopped in front of the new manger scene.  Due to the bitter cold, they didn’t stay very long.  After a very quick look, they scampered away—all except for one little girl, about six years of age.  As the wind lashed at her bare legs and caused her coat to fly open, she seemed absolutely oblivious to the weather.  Her attention was focused on the scene before her.  As she removed the blue woolen scarf from her head, the wind quickly knotted her hair into a wild tangle.  Not seeming to care, she wrapped her scarf around the figure of the baby Jesus…then kissed Him on the cheek.  Satisfied, she skipped on down the street with hair frosted with tiny diamonds of ice.

     What an amazing modern day picture of what happened 2000 years ago!  Oh, I don’t just mean on that Christmas night, as Mary placed her newborn, wrapped in swaddling clothes, in a cattle trough.  I’m referring to what happened right after the “expectant” Mary was visited by her cousin, Elizabeth.  Oh, Mary was expecting alright; she was expecting the coming of Someone Special—very special!  Elizabeth’s baby had just leapt in her womb at the hearing of the voice of Mary, who was now carrying the Messiah.  Elizabeth had praised God, but she also had as her focus the “specialness” of Mary herself.  But Mary said, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”  Her soul saw Him as truly great—great and greatly to be praised, as the Psalmist put it.  Why?  Because she knew her need—she was a sinner in need of salvation and a savior, just like everybody else.  Oh, the worship that flows from her lips!  He had done mighty things for her and her soul knew it—Holy is His Name!  She was hungry for His touch, and she was filled.  She was filled with the fear of the Lord, and because of it, mercy was hers.  She knew if she had remained proud in the “imaginations of her heart”—her understandings, her standards—she would no longer be close to the Lord.  And—Praise God—she knew that everything she had been offered was available to all—“from generation to generation”—even you and me!

      Mary was kissing the very face of God with her heartfelt worship.   As her soul kissed Him, she took the blue woolen scarf of her own comfort, and sacrificed it—surrendering her heart and life over to His will and His ways.  Lastly, Mary refers to herself as “blessed,” but that doesn’t mean the focus is supposed to be on her—in the Greek, it means to be “fully satisfied.”  As the little girl left the manger scene, she was satisfied—satisfied because God was praised, not her.  Mary was carrying Someone Special, and she knew it!  Remember—everything that was hers can be yours.  Where is your scarf?

~ Rev. Roy D. Warren, Jr.