Someone has pointed out that you don’t call on a “savior” unless you are in great need of something. Mary calls God “my Savior.” She was a very young women, pregnant and unmarried. She was poor. She was uneducated. She lived in a country ruled, taxed and punished by a foreign power and corrupt governors. In her world life was precarious. I doubt that she said the words “my Savior” lightly.
I, on the other hand, too frequently say the words, “my Savior,” out of habit without thinking of my need. Compared to Mary, I am wealthy, take safe childbirth for granted, know where my next meal is coming from and live in a country that, for the most part, gives me a voice and protects my civil rights. That doesn’t mean, though, that my needs aren’t great or that there aren’t greater needs around me. It’s just that in a culture where a veneer of self-sufficiency is admired, we don’t speak of needs easily. It’s a matter of pride, I guess. But for all the material conveniences, we still have gaping needs caused by confusion, loss, sorrow, loneliness, destructiveness, apathy.
Unless I can honestly admit my need, how can I, like Mary, rejoice in God as my Savior?
So as advent draws to a close, what have I learned to be my need, and what is your need that sets us singing for a Savior?
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