Home > Advent Blog 2023
Magnificent!
December 25, 2023
Today, many of us will give, receive, and open presents. We will hear a litany of phrases like, “wow, just what I wanted!” Or, “this is great!” Or, “um… well… it is clear that you put a lot of work into this gift.” Hopefully you will not hear that last phrase. One word that I do not think we hear a lot around the gift giving time is “magnificent!” This is a word that speaks to a sense of awe and grandeur. It is a word that is seldom used expect perhaps to describe a work of art or someone’s role in a Christmas pageant. It is not a word we hear in response to a gift.
In the scripture reading for the morning of Christmas we hear Mary use the phrase, “My soul magnifies the Lord…” Mary’s song is in response to her cousin Elizabeth sharing and celebrating Mary and the child that Mary is carrying. Elizabeth is saying, “you have received a true and wonderful gift,” and Mary is responding, “Magnificent!” But Mary is not saying that the gift is magnificent, nor is she saying that she is magnificent, but that God is magnificent. Mary is praising the gift-giver with a word that is appropriate to God’s awe and grandeur.
And if you are not sure why the gift of Christ calls for such praise, read ahead of what it is that God has and is doing. Showing mercy, lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry, and being with the people of Israel (and us as well). This is a gift that calls for true praise that is full of a sense of awe and power and wonder!
In praising the gift-giver Mary is at the same time praising the gift. That is part of the wonder of the incarnation. God gives the greatest gift, God’s self among us, as us. The gift and the giver are the same and that calls for praise more than “wow,” or “just what I wanted.” It calls for a “Magnificent!”
Jonathan Malone
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