Old Words

Last Sunday, the day after I came home from the hospital, we sang an old song in church. Victory in Jesus. I was already emotional and REALLY happy to be standing there with my church family singing to our Father. Victory in Jesus is one of those old, old songs that I've literally known my whole life. I think my mother has a recording of me singing it at about three years old. But, as often happens with old words we've taken for granted for years, a new nuance of meaning came to the surface.

We sang: "I heard about His healing, of His cleansing power revealing, How he made the lame to walk again, and caused the blind to see. And then I cried Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory."

I tearfully pondered the idea that Jesus often uses physical experiences in our bodies or lives to open our hearts to the healing we REALLY need. The writer of Victory in Jesus obviously felt that One who could make lame to walk and blind to see would have a remedy for his broken spirit as well. I love his use of the word "somehow." It wonderfully captures the mystery of Christ's work in one's life. I often emerge from an experience with Jesus knowing He made a change in me, but not quite sure how it happened.

Jesus' ability to meet me in a hospital room, listening to my physical pain, providing His presence in a fearful time, reminds me again of His utter ability to apply "cleansing power" and "victory" to the rest of me. To my real self. Sometimes He takes a physical experience and uses it as the gateway to a greater work in the heart that maybe I didn't even know I needed, or wouldn't have taken time to explore.

Old words that were new to me, keeping me going on this crazy journey.