(newness of life)
Ô Dieu Rédempteur
Venu pour mon cœur
Malgré mes échecs, mon orgueil
Et sur cette colline
La lumière du monde
Délaissée à l’obscurité
Et quand Tu parles
Mes cents milliards d’échecs disparaissent
Car Tu as échangé Ta vie pour la mienne
Par Ta victoire au tombeau j’ai la victoire
Je vois Ton cœur dans tout ce que Tu as fait
Tu nous tisses dans le chef-d’œuvre de Ton amour
Si Tu as tout donné
Je veux tout donner
Je vois Ton cœur sous huit milliards de facettes
Chacune un enfant si précieux à Tes yeux
Si Tu as choisi d’aimer
Je veux aimer
Comme Tu le referais cent milliards de fois
Mais qui pourrait mesurer Ton grand amour
Car même pour un seul
Tu aurais tout donné
(last verse of "So Will I" by Hillsong United, translated by Hillsong Paris)
Holy Week. Good Friday. Resurrection Sunday. Christ’s Passion.
Each year, there’s something new that Jesus focuses my heart or mind on - because every season is different, because He is engrossed in the process of sanctifying me and that takes time.
In recent years I’ve been struck by how different our experience of these days is compared to the original followers of Jesus because we have never had to experience His crucifixion without knowing that His resurrection was coming, too. Our darkness has never been without the blazing light of hope.
I was reminded last year, too, by a friend's well-stated post that we as Christians are not trying to deny the science of death by claiming that it’s normal for dead things to come back to life. In fact, it is the very opposite: we are declaring how exceptionnel it was that Jesus came back to life - that this understandably-hard-to-believe event is not consistent with the natural order of things. That therefore it must have been caused by Something outside of the natural order of things.
This year, it is the end of this song that keeps sticking with me. We’ve sung it for weeks now and I love to worship through the whole thing, but the last verse reverberates so strongly. And the last line has choked me up every time.
Disclaimer: I know that it was originally written in English, but I have only ever learned it in french. So in my head and heart I don’t know the original words, I only know the french words and my mind’s english translation of those words. So here is MY translation of the french, not the original english (we could go in circles and circles with languages!)
Oh God Redeemer
came for my heart
despite my failures, my pride
And on that hill
the light of the world
abandoned to obscurity
And when You speak
my hundred billion failures disappear
because You exchanged Your life for mine
By Your victory over the grave I have the victory
I see Your heart in all that You have done
You weave us in the masterpiece of Your love
If you gave everything
I want to give everything
I see your heart in eight billion facets
each one a child so precious in Your eyes
if You chose to love
I want to love
As You referenced it a hundred billion times
but who could measure Your great love
because even for only one
You would have given everything
It is that last statement that has been opening my heart this year - for even one person, Jesus would have come and lived His life and died His death and shattered the power of death with His resurrection.
The enormous love of God that is for ALL of humankind is also so very intimately personal. It’s not just that Jesus loves people. It’s that He loves you. And me. And the woman who lives upstairs with the cat. And the kid who can make life really difficult in class. And the cashier in checkout line #3 at the grocery. His all-encompassing love is also incredibly specific.
I pray we will each feel that this Easter - that I will know the specificity of Jesus’s love and victory for me; that you will know it for you; that we will pray for this revelation to be in the heart of each person we know and love, each person we encounter. 💙
And if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, or you’re sure I’m crazy but are still curious, or anything else - reach out. To me or another Christian you know, or try going to a local church this weekend to learn more. This love is specifically for you. 💙
