Christmas Morning: Son Rise on a New Dayნიმუში

What are you magnifying? What are you focused on?

In high school, I was exercising at a health club with a friend. We were running together on adjacent treadmills, carrying on a conversation. As we were talking, my face was pointed in his direction, and subtly, gradually, my body began to drift in that direction - an inch at a time. Eventually, I had gone so far in his direction that my foot left the conveyor belt of the treadmill and hit the hard (and very stationary) plastic on the outside. That foot came to a quick stop, careening me into a faceplant on the conveyor belt, which then shot me across the room like a rocket. I came to my senses about 10 feet behind the treadmill and quickly tried to hop to my feet, pretending nothing had happened - as if I had “stuck the landing.”Across the gym, a couple of people saw the whole thing transpire and erupted in mock applause. I decided not to take a bow.

I was focused on my friend, so I drifted ever closer in his direction, until it eventually changed the entire trajectory of my experience.

After visiting Elizabeth, Mary responded in song. “The Magnificat,” as it is called, is recorded in Luke 1:46-53. At the beginning of the song, Mary reveals that she is focused on the Lord! Because she is choosing to magnify the Lord, she is remembering many things about Him. He is her God, her Savior, the One who looks graciously upon her in her humble estate, the One who has blessed her and done great things for her, and the One who is holy.

Mary focuses on the Lord instead of a number of things: the reactions of her parents or Joseph to her pregnancy, any anxiety she may have felt for being “not enough” for this moment, or the aches and pains of carrying a child. She did not magnify herself or her problems. Instead, she magnified the Lord. As a result, she was drifting toward a deeper relationship with God, and this changed the entire trajectory of her life.

So, let me ask you again. What are you magnifying this Christmas? Your difficulties? Your uncertainties? Your problems? Yourself? Or the Lord? Take some time today to meditate on the opening of Mary’s song and focus on that today. Let’s run toward Him.