For Mary to be chosen from among all the women on the earth to carry the Christ child in her womb was a great thing, but it was an even greater thing to carry Him in her heart. As outstanding and unique a blessing as it was for her to be the mother of Christ, I am sure Mary would have been the first to agree that her spiritual relationship with Jesus as her Lord was of far greater importance than was her natural relationship with Him.

    If the Lord has taken up His abode in our heart it is a great thing; a wonderfully great and glorious thing; yea, an unspeakably precious thing, for that means He is ours and we are His. It is very important that we so live as to have fellowship with Him, but it is vitally important that we have a relationship with Him. There can be no fellowship unless there is first a relationship. We have nothing to do with bringing about the relationship, but we do have something to do with enjoying fellowship with Him after the relationship has been made manifest in regeneration. All God's elect have a relationship with Him, but because of disobedience some of them have little fellowship with Him.

    All who have a hope in Christ could with propriety adopt the language of Mary and say, "He that is mighty hath done to me great things." Divine life is the greatest thing, but bringing that immortality to light so that we can enjoy the possession of it in this life is also a great thing. It would do us no good here in time to be a child of God if He never made it known to us.

    It is a "great thing" to be able to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3), for that means we have been born again, or born of His Spirit. It is also a great thing to have a part in the militant kingdom here in the world and to enjoy the fellowship of other dear saints of like precious faith. And, in fact, every favor we receive at the hands of our merciful God is a great thing. There are some things we think of as smaller blessings, and as we have indicated, some blessings are indeed greater than others. But in reality they are all great, for they come from One who is mighty, and they greatly benefit us. May He help us to view them in that light.