In the Great Hand of God

 

Good Morning Friends,

I know last week I promised you some ‘spiritual warfare’ stories, but begging your pardon, I’d like to interject just one more interesting story I found this last week.

We were involved in a “Writers Workshop” this weekend. In addition to both of us doing a large share of the teaching itself, this was a big part of the reason for our coming to Hawaii, so it meant a lot to us.  

Reading thru the comments on people’s evaluation, we think it was a huge success, thankfully because of your prayers.  We are doing what we love to do, and we’re glad you can be a part of it.

And in the course of researching for this event, I became, this last week, obsessed with finding a poet that I remembered from our time in Japan. Because I'm getting old, I suppose, I could only remember that he was paralysed and that he’d become a Christian because of a missionary who passed by. 

The way it happened was the missionary stepped into a store to buy something.  In Japan, stepping into a store often meant (at least in the old days) that you slid back the Shoji paper door and stepped off the sidewalk where you immediately found yourself at the counter.  From there you bought whatever was for sale. 

As the missionary was making his purchase, he noticed a guy in the adjoining living space behind the counter.  He was tucked in a bed, propped up in front of an easel with a book on it.  

The shop owner, a widow, noticed the missionary looking and invited him into the family area to introduce him to her son.  She told the story of how he had contracted "Multifocal Fibrosclerosis" when he was just nine years old. Before he got sick, he was a healthy only child, excelling in sports and school.  Now he was an adult and because of the paralysis, most of his life he’d only been able  blink his eyes.  Every other voluntary muscle was paralysed. Depression and despair were constant companions of both of them.

The missionary asked for permission to place a Bible on the easel so the son could read it.  Soon after, they both mother and son gladly became  Christians. The son began a great legacy as  a  poet and songwriter.

That's all I could remember.

So I posed the question on Facebook, “Does anyone remember the famous Japanese poet who was a Christian and was paralysed?  

My friends on Facebook went to work and by a few hours, with a lot of help from lots of comments,  Google and even this new Artificial Intelligence called ChatGPT (although it was painfully wrong) , they finally came up with his name. One friend even sent me a YouTube link, but unfortunately only in Japanese, His name is Genzo Mizuno.

Anyway, as my friends pitched in, it all came back to me. I remembered…. this guy wrote some wonderful stuff.  His biography notes that after finding Christ, he was able to be thankful for his plight, going on to become a renowned counsellor, helping people come to grips with their situations. He became a prolific poet/songwriter.

I think I liked him because of the simplicity of his life. I guess when you're blinking out the alphabet, you need to pick your words carefully.

Here's one of his more famous poems based on one of his favourite verses of Scripture, 

Romans 8:28 (And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose)

“Living in the great hand of God, the snail crawls as a small snail should

The spider lily blooms as a spider lily should

The green tree frog croaks as a green tree frog should

And I, in the great hand of God

Live as I should”

May you remember all your memories this week. And remember that you're living exactly as you should in the Great Hand Of God.

Marsha