How He loves us.
One of the things I'm most looking forward to on my wedding day is the time Stephen and I are setting aside during the ceremony to start our marriage by lifting our hands in praise to our Heavenly Father as his friend Brian acoustically plays our favorite worship songs.
One of the things I'm not looking forward to is not having my earthly father there to walk me down the aisle.
To be honest, a year and a half later, I still struggle with the selfish question, "If God is so good, how could He let my father die before he could walk me down the aisle?"
I was talking about that with a dear friend recently about not understanding why God lets certain hurtful things happen. And despite not having an answer to my question, I shared how I've come to this weird place of peace in realizing, you know what, it's not my job to understand, it's only my job to trust that God knows the bigger picture beyond what I can see. I can choose to dwell in pain and be mad at God, or I can choose to find joy in my circumstances, and that despite how messy life gets, dwell on the beauty of how He still loves me.
And because of it, one song I want to use in the worship part of our ceremony is called "Oh How He Loves Us." Stephen sent me this video documentary about the songwriter, John Mark McMillan, and my eyes filled with tears as I heard him describe that the lyrics of the song were written in a moment of frustration over a tragedy and loss he went through. And this song was birthed from a conversation he needed to have with God as he too struggled to understand his loss.
I wanted to share the video with you and I pray that you too can come to know this beautiful love of oh, how He loves YOU.
Here's the lyrics:
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
Pre-Chorus:
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
Chorus 1:
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Verse 2:
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Chorus 2:
He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Verse 3:
Well, I thought about You the day Stephen died,
And You met me between my breaking.
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony.
...They want to tell me You're cruel,
But if Stephen could sing, he'd say it's not true, cause...
Chorus 3:
Cause He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
One of the things I'm not looking forward to is not having my earthly father there to walk me down the aisle.
To be honest, a year and a half later, I still struggle with the selfish question, "If God is so good, how could He let my father die before he could walk me down the aisle?"
I was talking about that with a dear friend recently about not understanding why God lets certain hurtful things happen. And despite not having an answer to my question, I shared how I've come to this weird place of peace in realizing, you know what, it's not my job to understand, it's only my job to trust that God knows the bigger picture beyond what I can see. I can choose to dwell in pain and be mad at God, or I can choose to find joy in my circumstances, and that despite how messy life gets, dwell on the beauty of how He still loves me.
And because of it, one song I want to use in the worship part of our ceremony is called "Oh How He Loves Us." Stephen sent me this video documentary about the songwriter, John Mark McMillan, and my eyes filled with tears as I heard him describe that the lyrics of the song were written in a moment of frustration over a tragedy and loss he went through. And this song was birthed from a conversation he needed to have with God as he too struggled to understand his loss.
I wanted to share the video with you and I pray that you too can come to know this beautiful love of oh, how He loves YOU.
Here's the lyrics:
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
Pre-Chorus:
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
Chorus 1:
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Verse 2:
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Chorus 2:
He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Verse 3:
Well, I thought about You the day Stephen died,
And You met me between my breaking.
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony.
...They want to tell me You're cruel,
But if Stephen could sing, he'd say it's not true, cause...
Chorus 3:
Cause He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Labels: Personal
posted by Scarlett Lillian // Jacksonville Senior Photographer at 6:55 PM
5 Comments:
That video brought tears to my eyes too. Such an amazing song. The situation reminds me of the story behind "It Is Well" by Horatio Spafford.
Hey Scarlett - Check out this out... I play guitar, bass, and other instruments. My son plays drums. So, each year, we do a family Christmas album to give out to friends and family. It's fun and really puts us in the Christmas spirit. We usually do 4 Christmas songs and one praise or worship songs. We did "How He Loves" for our worship cut two Christmases ago. My son sings (and plays the drums). He was 11 at the time. I played the rest. John Mark McMillan and his band heard it on facebook and liked it. It has a little bit of magic being sung by an innocent small 11 year old voice.
We are huge JMM fans. Here's Brian's version:
http://speakrecords.com/music/Christmas/2008/05%20How%20He%20Loves.mp3
That's sooooo cool Thomas!
As much as I've sung this song, cried over the words, and known that it was birthed from the pain of the loss of a friend I've never heard him speak about exactly what it means to him. It's almost a year since Naomi died and since her death I've felt pretty numb and almost like I'll never make it out of this pain or distant feeling from God. His words were just what I needed to hear - that even when I feel like giving up and that nothing is worth continuing this walk or fighting through the pain He is there loving me just as much as when I "feel" His arms around me. Oh, that we truly understood how much He really does love us. Thank you for sharing.
You may not know the answers to all your questions, but you can know the answer to that one. God has told you in the first chapter of James.
Post a Comment
<< Home