Magnify the Lord

The other day I went on a first-grade field trip. We loaded up those iconic yellow buses full of energetic children and drove into the country, bound for a day full of adventures. Between me and the teacher, we had eighteen of those wild things in our care. We dragged nets through the lake looking for critters, listened to a presentation about turkey calls, and stroked the pelts of animals common to the area.

In truth, the entire experience was a learning curve for me. While I spend a lot of time with my own children, large groups of little ones are not exactly in my wheelhouse. I was amazed by their energy, amused by their silliness, and in awe of their teachers, who wrangle this sort of organized chaos every single day.

Toward the end of the trip, we finally got to the station that included magnifying glasses. Little hand after little hand grabbed one out of the bucket and headed out on the trail. Again, being a novice with children, it quickly occurred to me that I had taken no time to educate these tiny scholars on how to actually use a magnifying glass. When the last child had grabbed one I headed up the trail and found myself in the presence of a bunch of cute little faces—with really giant eyeballs.

You see, the kids had absolutely no idea how a magnifying glass worked, so they did what made sense to them: they each put the magnifying glass up to their own eye instead of the object they wanted to magnify. The result was hilarious as they stumbled about in semi-frustration with exaggerated features, complaining, “Everything’s fuzzy!” and “Why can’t I see anything?” I took a moment to giggle and then joined the teacher in showing them that if you want to use a magnifying glass correctly, you have to magnify the thing you want to see better, not yourself.

It was not too terribly long after that when my giggle at the kids turned into spiritual amusement. Isn’t this exactly what we do all the time?

When want to figure something out, we have a habit of instinctively drawing it closer to our own perspective. We figure if we can just get really close to the problem and examine it with our own lens, we will be able to see clearly what is wrong and how to fix it. Except, just like these little tykes and their misused magnifying glasses, all we end up doing is making everything fuzzy and exaggerating our human qualities to the point that we look like fools. Not surprising. Magnifying ourselves is, in fact, foolish.

This temptation to magnify ourselves, to want to enhance our own viewpoint, is nothing new. This is the same desire that fueled Eve to become “wise in her own eyes” in the Garden, and the same one that will come at the end of the age when men magnify themselves above God. And, sandwiched right here in the middle of human history, we often do the same thing.

Magnifying ourselves has never been the answer. We are designed to see most clearly when we magnify the Lord.

Magnifying the Lord isn’t something we talk about much anymore, at least not in those terms. Many of the modern Bible translations we use substitute the word glorify or exalted in place of “magnify”. However, now that I have had this experience with children, I think it is the word magnify that may hold the most literal interpretation for me.

“Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us lift up His name together.” (Psalm 34:3 NKJV)

“Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified!’” (Psalm 40:16 NKJV)

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

Remember to magnify His work, of which men have sung. (Job 36:24 NKJV)

Each of these verses uses the English word “magnify” in place of the original Hebrew gadal or saga. The literal translation of these words is “to grow, become great or important, promote, cause to enlarge.”

It seems first-grade simple to me that if I magnify the Lord, if I “grow, become great or important, promote or enlarge” the Lord, then I am going to have no choice but to see him instead of my own limited understanding of the world. When there is something in my life that needs to be investigated, and I magnify him instead of magnifying myself, I suspect I will be able to discover what I need with a much clearer lens.

So take that magnifying glass down from your own eye, and I’ll take mine down, too. We looked like fools but we know better now. It is of no use to magnify ourselves. Always, always, magnify the Lord.

Anne Rulo is an author, speaker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist and veteran coaches wife. She and her husband Tim have two children and are passionate about reaching people for Christ and sharing information on coaching, marriage, family, and mental health. Read more from Anne at www.annerulo.com.