Mary’s Song

Tonight at the English Fellowship in Hirosaki we sang the English translation of a beautiful Japanese Christmas Carol based on Luke 1:46-55.

I was particularly mindful of verse 2 which begins, “He hath not looked with scorn on one of low estate.”

And verse 4:

Thou dost lift up the weak,

Thou dost bring down the strong,

Scatter the proud,

Move princes from their thrones;

Fill the hungry with good things;

And all the rich are sent empty away.

Our society honors the producers, the movers and shakers but it came home to me again as we sang… we should be careful before we look with scorn on that which we don’t see producing immediate, obvious results.

The sermon in Ajigasawa Church for this second Sunday of Advent was about three “miracle babies” – Isaac, John the Baptist and Jesus. God indeed does move and shake the world – but neither in these cases nor in my own experience do I see it happening very immediately, or even obviously!

Indeed he takes “the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, SO THAT NO ONE MAY BOAST BEFORE HIM.” (1 Corinthians 1:28-29 NIV)