The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching
Day 25 – Wednesday after Lent 4 – There’s No One Like Our God
To Read:
From the Scriptures:
Hannah prayed and said,
“My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies
because I rejoice in your victory.
2 There is no Holy One like the Lord,
no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
3 Talk no more so very proudly;
let not arrogance come from your mouth,
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
(1 Samuel 2v1-5)
From Vicky Beeching:
There’s No One Like Our God
You are high above all nations
Your glory shines above the heavens
Humbled Yourself to love and save us
Be praised through endless generations
There’s no one like our God, no one at all
He gave His Son for us, Jesus the Lord
Who can love us like He does, no one at all
Oh how we love You Lord
You lift the needy from the ashes
And seat them high up with the princes
You give the broken-hearted healing
Trading our scars for Your beauty and freedom
Chorus – repeats
And we love You, Lord (repeats)
There’s no one like you
No one loves me like You
Chorus – repeats
To Listen: There’s No One Like Our God by Vicky Beeching
To Reflect:
I don’t know about you but whenever I go on a protest I plan my wardrobe carefully. Thankfully I have never yet been involved in one that required face masks and copious amounts of water in case of being heavily tear gassed. The one time I was gassed, outside Regina Mundi church in Soweto, I wish I had done so! (It was there that I developed the strapline, ‘I love the taste of Tear Gas after Mass’). Nowadays I’m more about wearing rainbow-coloured lanyards, slightly edgy T-shirts, and carrying chic canvas shoppers that gently proclaim my protest.
I haven’t got one yet but, following Vicky’s words – reflecting those of Hannah the mother of Samuel and Mary the mother of Jesus – I’m seriously thinking of buying Ben Wildflower’s famous ‘Cast Down the Mighty’ picture printed on a shopper to use as the sweetie bag for my next visit to General Synod. This may not sound a very radical thing to do but there are a few of our members who still need to hear messages from strong women…
Vicky’s song is a song of protest and power but not, even though I like the idea of carrying a sign that says, ‘Snakes trodden on here’ about the power of Mary and Hannah. The power of Hannah, Mary, Vicky, and even me should not be only about foot-stamping and fist-clenching. This power is a power that is manifested through the renunciation of power. Strength, as we learnt yesterday, being made perfect through weakness.
‘Humbled Yourself to love and save us’ Vicky proclaims and in so doing our Beloved gives us a new way to live in a world where too often might is equated with right and we find it is not the rich but the poor that are ‘sent empty way.’ There is indeed ‘no one like our God’ and under the covering of that deep humility and unwarranted favour we find our hearts are healed and our scars remade into beauty.
How are we to protest this love? How do we proclaim it? How are we to demonstrate powerless power? The ways of the world, tear gas and all, have been proven empty again and again. Our response can only be deep worship and affection for the One who Loves us Best leading to lives overflowing with righteousness. It is our turn to imitate Him by becoming those who are invested in lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things.
This we can only do in the power and wonder of the Cross. Which is always the first item of kit I drape around my neck each day. For surely that is the only thing with which we have to protest and shout about?
May [we] never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to [us] and [we] to the world. (Galatians 6v14)
To Pray:
Lord, I will go to Mary and make covenant with her, to keep her child, not for her need but for mine. And take to me the sweet child and swathe Him in His cradle with love bands. Lord, help me to put from me the cradle of self-love and draw to me the cradle of true love, for that liketh this child to rest Him in, and so in my soul sing lovelike and say:
Lovely little child,
fairest of hue,
Have mercy on me,
sweet Jesu.
And while I thus sing I will be sorry and think how oft I have received my God and laid Him in a foul common stable to all the seven deadly sins… and seldom fully cleansed to God’s liking; therefore oft sigh and sorrow and shrive me to God as I rock the cradle, and sing and say: Lovely little Child.
(From Book to a Mother – Bodleian Library manuscript – adapted)
To Do:
Consider wearing a cross visibly about your person as an act of protest against a world that idolises power and as a daily commitment to leading a life of lifting up the lowly.
oooOOOooo
If you would like to find out more about Vicky and her work here is a link to her Wikipedia entry. For a fuller picture her autobiography ‘Undivided’ is highly recommended
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.
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Acknowledgements:
These Reflections, ‘The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beaching’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that their source is acknowledged.
All of the music on the video clips are from YouTube and are © Vicky Beeching.
If you enjoy listening to her songs please consider buying her recordings. A full discography and other information about Vicky can be found on her website vickybeeching.com.
Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayers are from A Diary of Prayer compiled by Elizabeth Goudge and are copyright © 1966 The Estate of Elizabeth Goudge.
Suffolk Vicar 