Daily Devotion 18 December 2025

My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.

Luke 1: 46-47

READING: Luke 1: 46-55

Mary’s Song

We all tend to have a vision of who we want to be. As children we would discuss, what do you want to be when you’re grown up? Especially in our youth we would be thinking, what will I do now with my life, how do I see myself in the future? At any age we have a self-image that we strive for.

I’m sure Mary was no different. She was a young girl, engaged to be married, living in a small town. Her dreams probably swirled around how her status might change as a married women - perhaps having her own home, imagining what children she might have …

And then, this vision of an angel telling her things outside her imagination for her future. Telling her preposterous things that she could not understand.

Her reaction shows us why she was chosen of God to bear His Son. This young girl, even though she caught a glimpse of the rejection, confusion and sorrow that would come to her through her life, still, her first reaction was one of praising God, admitting her humility, expressing gratitude not only for the honour done to herself, but for the whole of humanity as she was granted a vision of something of the greatness of God’s intention.

We can only pray to be given the grace to accept what God’s will is for us in as humble, unquestioning and willing a way as Mary did.

The world wants to dictate to us as how we should behave and look within society. Historically, women, even more so, have been told how to look and what to do. But God has a plan for each one of us. There is a spark within each one of us, men and women, regardless of our age, that God wishes us to nurture and bring into being in His name, a work to do, a task to fulfil, gifts to develop, people to love. Sometimes those things are not part of our dreams for the present nor the future as we have planned it.

We pray for God’s Spirit to reveal His plan for us, and His grace to accept it. We pray for wisdom to understand and see the vision of God for our lives, and to humbly and gratefully accept His will, even if we cannot see further than today.

Prayer

Gracious God, give me the diligence to seek You, the patience to wait for You and the wisdom to understand when You speak to me. Teach me, Father God, to trust in Your care for me, to accept your guidance and to rejoice in your love unbounded and eternal, through Christ our Lord. Amen