By Marijke Strong
Luke 1:46-55
My soul magnifies the Lord.
Do you remember how
on summer nights
we would watch stars
from the upstairs balcony?
Paper moon hanging
in the backyard tree.
And you said, put your eye
against this lens, and
the felty mass of sky
jumped into my retina
so that I almost fell backward.
Intimate in detail, it was
a universe in my brain:
constellation, nebula, red giant, Polaris.
Incomprehensible giantness gentled to
single points of light.
In this vastly world amass with
trouble and joy
Lord, teach our souls to magnify you
(to magnificat you) like hers did.
I feel too small but so did she
and maybe that’s alright.
Marijke Strong is the minister of congregational care and community life at Fellowship Reformed Church, Holland, Michigan.
