What I love is how she takes her own blessing and her own situation and realizes it’s just a part of God’s larger work. He’s feeding the hungry, working mighty justice for the weak, and defeating the powerful. Heady stuff for a young mom. You can’t imagine she was very proud or happy about the reality that her son had to sleep in a barnyard feed bin. What mom would be? Somehow she sees past all that.
She sees with Holy Spirit eyes. That same Spirit had hovered over her in tenderness already, and he’s moving her deeply into knowing God’s works and wonders. God has looked on her with love, chosen her for the birth of His Son, and made her life the theater and stage where He will reveal Himself. She’s a part of the great and grand story of the redemption of all things in heaven and earth, of God’s sovereign plan. God’s choices are not to exalt the powerful or honor the successful – no. If you listen carefully to her song, you can hear how stunned she is by it all. Remember, the greatest figure of her whole culture is Abraham. Abraham, the father of the Jews, the one who talked to God like a friend, the father of promise. And now God is talking to her and working in her just the same as him. She is floored. How can her problems and her life matter to an Almighty God? How can she be a part of this incredible work? For Mary, Advent is the arrival of the power and plans of God into her daily nap schedules and needs for baby blankets. He has no favorites. He loves us with all that He is, with all His eternal majesty and glory, regardless of our class or station in life. Moms, kings, and teens all matter to Him equally. She leads us to Him and invites us into her worship, hope, and joy! Praise Him!