"Sometimes a light surprises...."

"Sometimes a light surprises... The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord who rises...With healing in His wings.
When comfort seems declining...There comes to us again
A season of clear shining, To cheer us after rain."
- CS Hymnal 313

Alison Krauss and I go way back…not as far back as JT and I, but pretty darn far.  One afternoon as the Colorado sun was cresting the trees just outside the windows of the small coffeehouse we owned across the street from the University’s School of Music, "When God Dips His Pen of Love in My Heart""came on the CD player, and stopped me in my tracks. 

"When God dips His pen of love in my heart
And He writes my soul a message He wants me to know
His spirit all divine fills a sinful soul of mine
When God dips His love in my heart..."

My life seemed to have come full circle.  I had left behind my days of “wine and roses,” the emptiness of climbing ladders and shattering glass ceilings for a life devoted to knowing Him.  I woke up each morning with a burning in my heart to wring out of the day every moment I could with a Father who saw me as His innocent and beloved child. I wanted to know His face and feel His arms around me.  I wanted to breathe in the air of His mercy and never leave the light of His love.   But I also wanted to leave everything that felt unlovely about my past in the dust.  I had made a pact with myself that I wasn’t going to rehash the chapters that had seemed to have left bruises on my heart and scarred my innocence. 

"Well I said I wouldn't tell it to a livin' soul
How He brought salvation and He made me whole
But I found I couldn't hide such a love as Jesus did impart
Well He made me laugh and He made me cry, set my sinful soul on fire
When God dips His love in my heart"

I stood at the counter with Alison’s voice floating around and in and out of my heart…weaving her words through my thoughts like a mother robin bringing bright bits of tinsel found in the snow to lace through the building of her early spring nest.  God’s love had made me laugh…and it had made me cry….and more than anything it had set my soul on fire…to serve, to love, to heal.  How could I ever hide such love?  As I stared past the stained glass panels above the front windows and through the branches of the tall pines across the street and into the fathomless blue of a Colorado sky, I saw my child self...innocent and pure...skipping along holding the hand of the broken teenage me, the tired overachieving young adult me, the weeping betrayed girlfriend me, the frustrated "eldest of eight" sibling me, the burdened daughter of a widow me….and we all had a gift in our hand.  I realized that we all had at least one story to tell of how God had dipped His love in our heart and helped us see our wholeness…our completeness…our integrity, innocence, joy.  These stories were our gifts to share like breadcrumbs on a path of spiritual discovery. 

"...Well sometimes though the way is dreary, dark and cold
And some unburdened sorrow keeps me from the goal
I go to God in prayer, I can always find Him there
To whisper sweet peace to my soul. .."

As I stood there waiting for the scones I had put in the oven to finish baking, the fragrance of God’s message of redeeming peace filled my heart the way the scent of blueberries and lemon filled the coffeehouse.  I had a purpose…

"...Well I said I wouldn't tell it to a livin' soul
How He brought salvation and He made me whole
But I found I couldn't hide such a love as Jesus did impart
Well He made me laugh and He made me cry, set my sinful soul on fire
When God dips His love in my heart..."

“Write these things”…so we write…the teenager, the child, the mother, the career woman, the school principal, the friend, the wife….these are our gifts…to Him..

and to you…

"In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God's salvation
And find it ever new.
To God, in light abiding
True praise shall tune my voice
For while in Him confiding
I cannot but rejoice."

Kate