In these final days of Advent, I keep returning to Mary’s song in Luke’s Gospel, the Magnificat, her great cry of joy and surrender. It is, in so many ways, the perfect Advent prayer. Before Jesus is born, before the shepherds arrive, before the world knows what God is doing, Mary stands in the quiet of her own hidden life and proclaims:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
What a daring thing to say.
What a magnificent thing to believe.
Mary isn’t praising God because everything is easy. She isn’t rejoicing because she has all the answers. She is rejoicing because she knows who God is and she knows who she is in God. Blessed. Held. Seen. Filled with a well-being that comes not from circumstance but from grace.
Advent invites us into that same posture. Will you pause long enough to ask:
What in me proclaims the greatness of the Lord?
Where does my spirit rejoice in God, my Savior?
How am I blessed, not in the sense of achievement, but in the deep sense of well-being that comes from being loved by God?
Mary’s Magnificat is not just her song. It is the song God longs to awaken in each of us. A song of courage. A song of surrender. A song that rises from the quiet places where God is already at work.
As we wait for Christ’s coming, maybe the most faithful thing we can do is what Mary did:
Notice the grace already stirring.
Name the goodness already growing.
And let our own souls whisper—or shout—our magnificat back to God.
Smitten With Goodness 