The Magnificat

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Season of Advent 

December 23, 2025

The Magnificat

Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.

     How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

Luke 1:46-47

Read Luke 1:46-56

Almost every word of Mary’s beautiful song is a quotation of scripture. Elizabeth’s child is John the Baptist, and his preaching will echo Mary’s song.

Mary and Elizabeth are far from naïve. There is yet much pain and sorrow in their lives. Why then could they speak with such excitement and joy about a child who then was still thirty weeks from birth? I believe they could celebrate with such uninhibited joy because, as I noted yesterday, they knew they were participating in God’s plan of salvation. In their reading of the scriptures, they met the God of Creation who is the Holy One, the Powerful One, the Faithful One, the Merciful One, and the One who is Love for all His creation. When they realized God was literally moving within them to fulfill his promises, their spirits responded with words of reverence and joy, the words of scripture.

When I read Mary’s song, I think of that most beautiful sonnet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet XLIII. It begins “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach . . .”

In previous Seasons of Advent, I have suggested a spiritual formation discipline of writing our own sonnet for Jesus. Our sonnet may begin with the words, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Then we can fill in the remaining lines with the many ways, grounded in scripture, we have experienced Christ Jesus, God our Savior.

My Takeaway: I am going to wait until New Year’s Eve and form my sonnet when we empty our Blessing Jar and then, one by one, review all our many blessings from this year. 2025 has been a year of many challenges, and we have experienced God’s love, and His provision in each one!

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.