Welcome to Advent 2025! Each Sunday, we’ll explore the verses of Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55 until we reach its crescendo on Christmas Eve. From 11/30 to 12/27, we’ll read biblical passages that prompt Mary’s praise and prepare us to enter the pageant of the birth of our Savior.
Advent Reading: Luke 1:48-50
Today is a special day for my family, and not just because it is the second Sunday of Advent. This afternoon, four generations of my family will gather to celebrate my grandmother’s 101st birthday. We will enjoy lunch and cupcakes together and honor her because we love her.
My grandmother’s life has been long, but not always easy. Her father died tragically when she was very young. She grew up without much money, picking cotton and catching chickens. She married my grandfather just days before she watched him leave for World War II. She became a young mother, creating a household in the oil camps of South Texas until they moved to Fort Worth. She raised three kids, nursed my grandfather through ALS, and buried him in her 50s.
But if you ask her, she won’t tell you stories about the hard days. She’ll recount the great things, remembering friends and adventures. She might tell you about the church she and my grandfather helped build or her famous apple pie. But, mostly, she talks about the blessings of today: new friends, her neighbor’s cat, and card games. My grandmother is still growing and loving and praising the Lord.
Like my grandmother, Mary encountered some hard days. We know all about the trials to come: the donkey ride, the stable-turned-birthplace, the years of hiding in Egypt, and the days of searching for her son. We know she will watch Him suffer on the cross.
But, we also know about all the great things to come. We know that Mary will witness Jesus’ first miracle. She will see Him bring loving kindness in justice and righteousness to everyone He meets. She will behold Jesus resurrected and seated on His eternal throne.
When we meet Mary, she says “yes” to God because she knows all He has done for His people in the past. She honors God as the Mighty One, but she has not yet met her Messiah. She cannot yet comprehend the magnitude of God’s blessing or the extent of the generations to be blessed by Jesus’ coming.
This week, we’ll explore God’s vast provision for us and the reasons Jesus came to be with us in the flesh. We will consider how God’s holiness holds all things together—His blessings and mercies—and we’ll wonder together at the great things to come.
I’m so glad you’re here.
© 2025 Lori Myers Berry
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