Doing the dishes every morning is made pleasant by the mass of pink flowers outside my kitchen window as I stand at the sink. The flowering quince is almost in full bloom, and the morning light illuminates the blossoms in all their glory. I went outside yesterday to view them from the backyard, and strangely, they weren’t nearly as impressive as “in my face.” It’s as if I’m in the middle of the bush and they are magnified to me at the elevated eye level that is my perspective.
It reminded me of the Bible verse that says to magnify the Lord, Psalms 34:3, when David enjoins us, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.” Of course, we can’t make God any bigger than He already is, but by praising Him, our view of Him is enlarged.
Again, he says in 35:27, “Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” (The Hebrew word, shalom, which is translated here as “prosperity” also means “safety, wellness, happiness, health, and peace” and is usually translated, “peace”--which is true prosperity.)
My daughter-in-law brought me a bouquet of jonquils from her yard, bringing a bright splash of yellow to the dining room table. Up close and personal, I can enjoy them and appreciate the beauty of the hardy bloom, and even see the delicate intricacies of the trumpet, pistil, and other parts of the flower. In other words, they are magnified to me, which in turn magnifies their Creator.
When Mary, the mother of Jesus, was greeted by her cousin Elizabeth, to whom the revelation that Mary was with child with the Holy Infant was given, Mary responded with the song we call the Magnificat. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” it begins, which means “declares the greatness of”. Her song was taken from Hannah’s song, another mother who recognized God’s greatness in the birth of her son, Samuel.
May we never fail to recognize God’s greatness in creation and magnify Him in our lives. The closer we get to Him, the better we can see Him.
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