Children love to play with magnifying glasses. First they see all the little details and intricacies of things. Then they realize they can make fire with a magnifying glass and the magnifying glass becomes even more enchanting and alluring.
Now, for me, the magnifying glass is a necessity. It helps me to read small print and see small things that my aging eyes can no longer distinguish. So, I keep one on my desk at all times. One day a few years ago, I smelled a smokey odor at home. I went to my desk, wooden, and the magnifying glass was on the desk along with some random papers. And the sun was coming through the window, and through the magnifying glass, and the paper on the desk and the wood beneath had begun to smolder!!! Good thing someone was home or the house might have burned down! The glass is now kept in a drawer.
Magnifying is powerful!
The Magnificat begins with Mary magnifying God: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” This is translated as praising God, exalting God, proclaiming the greatness of God. I like the word ‘magnify.’ In response to God’s love, Mary makes God bigger. In her life, she reveals God in a way that makes God more clearly seen and understood. With her life, with her assent to the plan to birth Jesus, she makes God bigger and clearer for the world to see. She evidences God’s power and love.
And this is what we are here to do. Not just appreciate that Mary was a faithful soul with a special job. Not just praise Mary for magnifying God. But we are here to magnify God. To make God , Divine Love, bigger and clearer for the world to see. We are here to make God’s love and justice plain. Easily seen and understood by the world.
Prayer: This season, may we be those lenses that make the love of God displayed in Mary and Jesus, clear and powerful in our world today. Amen.
This devotion was prepared by Rev. Kim P. Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 