The “great
thing God has done for me” made Mary great with child without her betrothed’s
participation or consent. That is not normally a cause for rejoicing even if
the child hidden in her secret place was the Messiah. But let’s be clear. Mary
is not a member of the ruling class and the “servant Israel” of whom she sings
is hardly a significant player on the world’s stage. But Mary is naturally naïve
and believes in, or at least hopes for, the promise of God come true. And come
to think of it even the secular songs of this season seem wonderfully naïve in
a world so full of woe. “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping
at your nose…” There is more power in hope than in any other human emotion save
love although they are so closely related as to be the same thing. And miracles,
like songs that imagine God come down to lift up the lowly, do not need to be
fully realized to be more than true. When Mary’s boy was full grown the mighty
she imagined cast down from their thrones lifted him up on a cross until crying
out in agony he breathed his last. But the song she sung when he moved in her
womb could not be stilled and the refrain of His resurrection was just the
prelude to the chorus that is sung even now in eternity. God has done great
things indeed.
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