In Mary’s famous song, she expresses praise for God’s concern for the lowly, hungry, and disadvantaged. As a young Hebrew woman in a Roman-occupied territory, she might well have been shocked that she would be an instrument of God’s redemption for Israel. Mary was able to look beyond the implications of what this pregnancy would mean for her in the short-term and see the big picture.
For many of us, that’s not easy to do. We often focus on the inconvenience or the disappointment that comes when life doesn’t happen according to our plan. Mary’s song is a call to step back and look at the big picture of what God might be doing through these circumstances. It is a call to reframe our it’s-all-about-me thinking.
Think about a time when life did not unfold as you thought it would. What were your fears and frustrations? Looking back, how might God have been using that situation for the good?
Today, offer a prayer of praise for all the ways God has looked upon you with favor, has fed the hungry, and has lifted up the lowly.