What is your favorite Christmas carol? I love to sing Christmas songs, they are full of hope and joy that point us to our Savior. Luke must have loved a good Christmas song as well because the first two chapters of his gospel contain three of them. Mary sings the first song here, Zechariah follows close after and then you have the angels singing to the shepherds later on. I think part of the reason we love to sing Christmas songs is, like these who sang the very first Christmas carols show us, when you think much about the birth of Jesus, and what it means you are so filled with joy, you can’t help but sing out to the Lord in happiness.
Mary teaches us the only sensible response to the birth of our Savior, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” The next line says, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Christmas is a time where we should indeed magnify and rejoice in our Savior who has come to make all the sad things come untrue. As you read down through her song that is exactly what she sings about. Mary is singing about turning the world upside down and setting it right side up. God gives strength to the weak. He gives hope to the hopeless. He fills the empty. He helps the helpless. He gives mercy to the guilty. On the flip side, God removes the arrogance of the proud. He brings down those who have risen on the back of their fellow man. He empties out the treasuries of the greedy. Mary’s song is telling us that Jesus restores the proper order to the world. We already experience much of what Mary sings about in our world where the gospel is properly lived out. Those who know Jesus take care of the weak and poor. Followers of Christ protect the innocent and helpless. Christians give without reason simply because Christ has given them so much. Generosity, mercy, grace, care and concern for our fellow man, these are ideas that flow out of a biblical understanding of Christmas. One day we will see a perfect world without the troubles we now experience, but until then, we have the songs of Christmas, to sing in joyful hopefulness, of how our Savior changed and is changing the world forever. Let us take time to magnify the Lord through our words and deeds and even our songs today. If you are looking for some good Christmas music to sing I encourage you to check out our family’s favorite Christmas album. Below is a link to the album and below that is one of our favorites off that album. sovereigngracemusic.org/music/albums/prepare-him-room/
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