Monday, September 13, 2010

"You Make Me New...."

It was a typical Sunday morning. I was at church early to rehearse with the worship band. We went through each song. Amazing Grace touched my heart as it usually does, humbling my spirit and bringing a glimmer of a tear to my eye.

The band began the last song - Beautiful Things. It's not my favorite to interpret - the English in it is a little hard to express appropriately in American Sign Language. The Stand - which IS my favorite these days, is also a little hard, but it has touched my heart in a way Beautiful Things hadn't, and I have had the opportunity to let it sink into my spirit to grasp the meaning more completely.

So, Beautiful Things started. I knew I wanted to hand the song to my friend to interpret this week - I had struggled through it last week. But, since she wasn't there yet, I decided to work my way through it. Let God teach me as I listened to the words, and let go of my hands.

I struggled to hear the worship leader, who was protecting his voice from the cracking effects of the cold his family had shared with him. I turned to face the screen behind the band in order to read the lyrics. Behind the lyrics, pictures scrolled - heart-breaking situations and demonstrations of grace, pictures from 9/11 and subsequent relief efforts, the hope of seedlings bursting forth in the garden.

They played through the first few lines. I surrendered my hands, but noticed where they went. "YES! That's it...." For me. My interpretation.... But way to personal and vulnerable to "speak" knowing there would be a deaf visitor that I'd never met before.

During the chorus - "You make beautiful things, beautiful thing out of the dust. You make beautiful things, beautiful things out of us...." - I began to think back through my life. He surely has taken the dust and shambles of my life and recreated it. Beauty from ashes, as I like to call it.

They moved on to the bridge: "You make me new, You are making me new...." There, my hands dropped. I am sure that my chin dropped, too, and the tears burst forth uncontrollably. I had to walk away. There was no more interpreting. I was so moved and humbled, as God touched my heart. There were no words to speak - in either language.

There behind the words was a picture of my baptism in the creek two summers ago. There could not have been a more personal way to bring that message home to me again. "Here, Linda, let Me remind you... I am making you new..." -

Thank You, God for being so active and loving in my life, and for reminding me again and again that You are making me new - in so many ways, on so many levels....

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