1Start
To magnify something is to make it look bigger. Mary sang that her soul magnified the Lord (Luke 1:46).
2Read Together
After Elisabeth’s greeting, Mary praised God in words that echo Hannah’s song in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 2:1–10). When John was born, Zacharias also praised God, filled with the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:67).
Luke 1:46–49 · King James Version
46And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 49For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.
Luke 1:52–53 · King James Version
52He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. 53He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
3What It Teaches
Mary called God “my Saviour” and said he had noticed “the low estate of his handmaiden” (Luke 1:47–48). She came from a small town, with no fame or wealth, and God saw her.
“He that is mighty hath done to me great things,” she said (Luke 1:49). Then she described how God works. He brings down the proud and the mighty, lifts up the lowly, and fills the hungry with good things (Luke 1:51–53).
Zacharias’s song looks ahead to the Savior. He called him “the dayspring from on high,” the first light of morning, coming “to give light to them that sit in darkness” (Luke 1:78–79). His own son would “go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways” (Luke 1:76).
Both songs praise God for what he had promised and had begun to do. When we name what the Lord has done for us, we magnify him too.
4Talk About It
Mary said, “he that is mighty hath done to me great things.” What great things has the Lord done for our family this past year?