\u201cThe Mighty One has done great things for me\u2014holy is his name.\u201d
\n \u2014 Luke 1:49<\/p>\n
One danger we can slip into at Christmastime is discontent. Maybe we long for \u201cthe perfect gift\u201d from someone. Or we hope for the perfect family gathering with \u201cjust the right people\u201d around the table. Or perhaps we want Christmas worship to go \u201cjust so.\u201d And then we grow ill-tempered or even cranky when things do not go as we dreamed.We can also slip into complaining about what we do not get from God. Or maybe there are injustices we face, or our life hasn\u2019t worked out the way we planned, or there are some sins we can\u2019t quite shake\u2014and we wish God would take those problems away.Yet, as Mary\u2019s song celebrates, God\u2019s mercy shows up not only in answers that we expect from our prayers. Sometimes God\u2019s mercy shows up in our difficult situations. The angel\u2019s surprising, even shocking, announcement to Mary upended her world. Yet she still recognized God\u2019s saving grace in the promised birth of Jesus.Mary\u2019s song reveals something else too. She sees the power of God to lift up people who recognize their need for grace. In the world\u2019s eyes, the rich and powerful seem to have all they need in order to manage their lives. But people who recognize their own weaknesses will find that Jesus the Savior brings divine power to their struggles. May we join with Mary in humble gratitude for the gifts of God\u2019s mercy and strength.<\/p>\n
Lord God, you are merciful and mighty beyond our wildest imagination. Open our eyes to the great things you have done\u2014and to your mercy to us in Jesus. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe Mighty One has done great things for me\u2014holy is his name.\u201d \u2014 Luke 1:49 One danger we can slip into at Christmastime is discontent. Maybe we long for \u201cthe perfect gift\u201d from someone. Or we hope for the perfect family gathering with \u201cjust the right people\u201d around the table. Or perhaps we want Christmas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[182,2971],"class_list":["post-11695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-god","tag-mighty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}