So, as I was driving from Virginia to Pennsylvania yesterday, I listened to a recording of the Magnificat by Rutter. I thought it would be a good break from memorizing Mary’s song in Luke 1. It was being sung in Latin, and my Latin is tenuous since, after all, it has been a very long time since high school. But it was still fun listening carefully, figuring out where the choir was in relation to the English translation I was trying to memorize, and delighting in how the music painted the text. So the music starts: “Magnificat, magnificat….” which in English is “Magnify, magnify.” In the music the drums beat louder and each “magnify” rises higher. It is exhilarating.
Mary’s song, the Englsih version, begins: My soul magnifies the Lord. If you are reading this blog, then you surely have used Google Maps or Mapquest. You know, for example, how we can start from a large area map and step by step zoom in closer and closer. When my son was hiking the Appalachian Trail, he posted a link on his blog to a map of the trail up the east coast. One could see how the trail went from Georgia to Maine. But then one could click the “+” button and zoom in closer; go click “+” again and zoom in still closer. Pretty soon one could see the elevation contours, the shelters, the parking areas of the vicinity he was in. One could even zoom in and magnify what the challenges might be for the day, or where roads or rivers need to be crossed, or the locations of towns where supplies could be gotten.
My soul magnifies the Lord, said Mary.
I wonder if Mary’s life was like a map, where one could locate the “+” button, zoom in and see more clearly what God had done for her. She actually seems delighted in letting people know what God was doing. Her focus seems to be not about herself at all; it was about what God was doing.
So what about our lives? Are we willing to get out of the way? To hit the + button of our lives so that others can see more closely what God is doing? Do we want to magnify and feature God or ourselves? Who do we want magnified?
May soul magnifies the Lord, said Mary.
Important words. Can I say the same?
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