Everything. The song in the video above, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” has been going through my mind all morning -I am responding to the song writers question. What has love got to do with it? Everything. Love has everything to do with it, with us, with life. Another song writer claimed, “Love Makes The World Go Round” check out this video if you want to hear that song.
Love - beginning, middle and end. And yes hearts do get broken. And we don’t give up on love or mistakenly identify it as a second hand emotion. You see the love which created us and sustains us, the love which is our birthright, our legacy, our life source is the love of God. And this love is everything.
The tune is catchy. Tina Turner’s performance of the song won awards and charted high on the billboards. And we also get to be reminded that broken hearts have more room. Mary’s heart will be broken and as Simeon will later tell Mary in Luke 2:35 a sword will pierce her own soul.
As we come to this last Sunday in Advent and hear Luke 1:39-55 I am thinking about “Mary’s Song” aka the Magnificat Luke 1:46-55. A song of praise by an unwed pregnant young woman who trusts God’s promise . This promise was shared with her by the angel Gabriel. And she believed.
What’s love got to do with it? Everything. In the Lutheran Study Bible there is a note on page 1698 (in reference to Luke 1:46-55 and what Martin Luther believed about Mary). Here is the quote from Martin Luther, “Here, the tender mother of Christ teaches us with her words and by the example of her experience how to know, love and praise God.”. With her words and by her example to know, love and praise God. So let’s focus on that in these days leading up to Christmas; to know, love and praise God.
Mary as a teacher for us of how to know, love and praise God is an invitation to you this week. What can you learn from a vulnerable, unwed pregnant teenager? To know, love and praise God. Even as she goes with haste to find comfort and consolation with her cousin Elizabeth Mary embodies the love of God. God’s love is about to be born into human flesh and Mary sings. Her love for God is shown as a deep and abiding trust that God is the source of her strength. This is what Love has to do with it- everything.
In this last week before Christmas I encourage and invite you to find some times to pause and in the midst of whatever is going on in and around you to ask, “What’s love got to do with this?”. This invitation to pause is so that you might learn from Mary, the Mother of our Lord, to know, love and praise God- in all times and in all places.