As Mary walked along the dusty road, her mind was in a whirl.  Such strange things were happening.

     A few days before, an angel had appeared to her and had said the most unusual things.  He said God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah.  That was a shock.  He also said her baby would not have a human father.  That was beyond belief.  And he finished by saying that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant herself.  That was staggering, because Elizabeth was an old woman, long past the child bearing years.  What was she to make of it all?

     She was on her way from Nazareth, where she lived, to the town in the hill country near Jerusalem where Elizabeth and Zacharias lived.  She needed to talk to someone.  And she needed to see if what the angel had said about her cousin was true.

     When she got to the house and greeted Elizabeth, she got another shock.  Not only was the old woman obviously pregnant, but she began talking in a loud, excited voice about what an honor it was to be visited by the mother of her Lord.  Mary couldn't understand that.  She was just a young peasant girl, engaged to be married to Joseph, the village carpenter.  She wasn't anyone's mother.  Unless...And slowly the truth began to dawn that what the angel had said was true.

     She was going to have a baby, a miracle baby, created within her by the Holy Spirit of God.

     And Mary broke into a song of praise!

     "My soul doth magnify the Lord," she said.  "He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name."

     Mary's song, which is found in Luke 1:46-55, is a beautiful expression of the faith of this remarkable woman God chose to be the human mother of His Son.

     There was no outward evidence that she was expecting a baby.  After all, only a few days had passed since she had seen the angel.  But Elizabeth was pregnant, as the angel had said she was.  And she had called Mary the mother of her Lord!  So Mary believed God, and sang in faith a hymn of praise for what she was convinced He had done in her body and would do through her baby.

     Elizabeth said, "Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord."  Mary believed before it happened.  We are asked to believe after it has come to pass.  When Mary believed, she worshiped and said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord."

     So can we.