| “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” |
| —Luke 1:46-47 |
Mary spoke the above statement upon learning that God had chosen her to bear the Son of God. This stirring tribute to God, called “The Magnificat,” comes from the Latin root word from which our word “magnify” derives. This same verb appears in the first sentence of Mary’s declaration.
One way we use the word “magnify,” is to think of making something appear bigger, so that we can see it better. At a ballgame, we might watch the game from the stands on a jumbo screen that magnifies the players, so that we can see facial expressions and the intricate details of each play. In the laboratory, we magnify tiny creatures through a microscope, so that we can see them better with the human eye. In neither case do we actually make the objects bigger. We just make them appear bigger, so that our eyes can see them.
What did Mary mean when she said that she “magnified” the Lord? As God had chosen to reveal Himself to her through the Holy Spirit, she looked at His character, His might, His blessing, His holiness, His mercy, and His multitude of gifts. Then, she spoke of each attribute of God in such poetic ways and desired to make them bigger, so that she and others could see Him more clearly. It was as though she had practiced this art throughout her short life. God had obviously carefully prepared her for this moment.
Psalm 34:3 records King David’s desire to give the same kind of glory to God that Mary gave. He wrote:
Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!
When we gather together with other Christians and relate what we know of our God, we also magnify Him. We do not actually make Him any bigger or greater than He’s always been. But instead, through our expressions of worship, we show others the bigness of our God. We allow them to see and understand Him in ways they may have never seen Him or understood Him before.
During this Season of Advent, like Mary did, we need to consider our great God, and we need to magnify His character in such a way that others can better see Him, better heed Him, and better know Him for themselves. He is certainly worthy of this exaltation!
