What Mary Knew: Spreading Christmas Cheer by Singing Loudly for All to Hear

By amazon Tuesday, December 24, 2019 Comment Edit

Mary’s song of Christmas cheer is one of joy and hope and she reminds the audience that God is in the process of turning an upside-down world back right side up.

Buddy the Elf has a principle for spreading Christmas cheer. If you’ve seen the movie ELF, you may recall it: “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear.”

I couldn’t agree more with his assessment of spreading Christmas cheer. I love Christmas songs. In fact, I’m one of those weird ones that start listening to Christmas songs even before Thanksgiving. One of my favorite Christmas songs of all time is, “Mary Did You Know?”

I’m sure that when Mary received the news regarding her miraculous baby she didn’t know the extent to what her baby would eventually do.

However, Mary, after having received the news and visiting Elizabeth and Zechariah, she recites one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time. It is in her Magnificat that Mary reverberates a Christmas cheer that has been handed down throughout the millennia and has been heard by millions throughout history.

And it is her song of praise, celebration, and worship (her Christmas cheer) that reveals to us what she did know. So, what did Mary know?

She knew God was great and was greatly to be praised.

The coming of Jesus, the birth order of Jesus, completely rocked Mary and Joseph’s world. In fact, he turned their lives upside down. They would not live a normal life—a life that they had been planning before Jesus’ arrival.

Yet, even after having their normal lives turned upside down, she sings, “My soul praises the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

She even goes on to assume that “all generations will call me blessed.” While this certainly would be true, it would take some time. Yet she believed that God was doing a great thing ...