Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, December 27, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Gratitude is powerful. Here is a young, out-of-wedlock woman in a culture in which becoming pregnant in such a state could result in her death. She’s run off to the country to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, and maybe it was because she needed to disappear for a while to hide her condition? She was with Elizabeth for three months, though which three months we’re not told. Possible the last, in which her pregnancy would be hardest to hide. Did she go home just in time for the census?
But I digress. The fact is that God has given her a dangerous burden to bear. And she is grateful. Grateful because she trusts God to do as God promises. Grateful because God’s decision to choose her—a poor woman—to bear God’s child is proof that God’s favors the oppressed. Grateful that God is at last acting to fulfill God’s promise of a Messiah.
We all face challenges. Some of them devastatingly difficult. I know that when I have been able to find at least something to be grateful for, the enormity of my situation lessens. When I can tease out even a hint of a positive spin, I begin to see possible solutions, and my trust in God increases.
The truth is that some challenges are just too much, and we can never spout off hollow advice to “always look on the bright side” or claim that anything is “God’s will” or that “God has a plan” or other such patronizing banality. If the problem isn’t ours, we ought best to keep our mouths shut and our arms open. But when it’s me, I get to ask God for help in finding gratitude, in weathering the challenge, and in looking back and seeing the good that’s come out of it.
Has the practice of gratitude ever lessened a burden for me? How?
