“And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,”
Luke 1:46-48 CSB
Our Lord looked with favor upon Mary’s humble condition. There is something very precious about this. The sovereign God of the universe is especially inclined towards those who don’t seem to stand out. Those who are average, unassuming, and often disadvantaged.
Why is this? Why is the most powerful Person in the universe drawn to weakness? Maybe one reason is that humility is His way of doing things, His character.
His way is to serve! His nature is to empty and divest himself!
I recently did an internet search for the word “divest” and the very first result gave this definition: to “deprive (someone) of power, rights or possessions.” And then interestingly, it was followed by this sample sentence: “men are unlikely to be divested of power without a struggle.”
This may be true of people, but it does not seem to be true of our God! The baby lying in a feeding trough, whose first audience consisted of farm animals and shepherds, with parents who had little to no station—these testify to the heart of our Lord, who willingly and substantially veiled His glory to become one of us.
To be sure, His way is to exalt the very ones who are bowed down, and so Mary can see ahead to how all generations will call her blessed. Perhaps we too can take comfort when we feel the dissonance and awkwardness of our own “humble conditions.” Perhaps we too can look for His blessing right when it seems life is all too ordinary, uneventful or even disappointing.