Magnify Him

“I will praise the name of God with a song, I will magnify Him with thanksgiving.” (Psalm 69:30 ESV)

I want to loop back on yesterday’s gratitude verse because it trailed behind me all day as an unfinished task. To magnify is to make something bigger, to alter our perspective. Consider a magnifying glass: we utilize it’s heavy eye to help us see at a whole new level. The bulging lens doesn’t invent or mislead, it merely reveals what already is. It sharpens our attention to the smallest features: the God-details that compose our stories.

You and I, we tend to live fast and large. We fill up the room with our opinions, feelings and agendas. We hurry through, fear of missing out smears our existence into a messy blur. Giving thanks is about slowing our roll and shrinking our persona to appropriate stature. Thankfulness enlarges our perception of God’s presence and dominion. He’s revealed in a thousand gifts unfolding each and every day. We only need to take up the magnifying lens of thanks and start paying attention. We’ll see what we look at and what we attend to surely looms larger.

Today I’m foraging for the God-details. I’m looking through the lens of thanks on this ordinary Monday, just sure that God is already occupying every hour. I’m mindful of His undeserved and over-the-top generosity toward His children. I’m paying attention to the smallest details that shout His great love for me.

“It’s our lives that are little and we have a falsely inflated self, and in thanks the world returns right.” (One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp)

“Remember to magnify His work, of which men have sung.” (Job 36:42 NKJV)

Lord, help us pick up the magnifying lens of thanksgiving this day. The task feels cumbersome at first, and even a bit trite. But then we start to see and entire world unfolding, a previously unseen ecosystem of intricate beauty, all on God-display for the few that slow and grasp the glass to see more clearly. We want to see. Open our eyes and ignite wonder. Let our souls magnify Your name. Amen.