Monday, April 8, 2013

ashes :: what wondrous love

{via pinterest}
what wondrous love is this 
oh my soul //
oh my soul //

i've been softly singing these words as i wander though my morning. it's been notes that have hung on my tongue since Saturday afternoon when i stood and watched as tongues of fire devoured my in-law's barns and vehicles. 

but the wind turned in the nick of a second and spared the house. melted slightly, scorched and warped slightly. whispers of what could have been, but were not. what wondrous love is this.

and now i find myself on my knees as i ponder what He let me see. i walk a line between grief and awe, of sorrow and wonder. because i'm learning first hand about refinement through fire, and seeing things that i never connected before. 

beauty from ashes, life from the ground's barest places. this is the thing He has been pushing on me in recent weeks. i have the firebird on my ankle, placed there the night that we remember His cry of it is finished

and He spared the house like He spared my soul, with His breath and His wind and the rain that came pouring down like tears as He saw the grief and wept Himself for love of His own. and as i walk through the ashes and embers and charred remains of wood and metal, i realize this more and more. 

{via pinterest}
deeper and deeper i am sinking into impossible Love that is almost wordless, inexplicably powerful except for when you experience something beyond yourself. 

He dwells within her
she shall not be destroyed.
::psalm 46:5

because my soul is something tucked away, and He lives in every corner of me, and i'm learning to let Him paint my soul His colours instead of mine, and gently mold me into something more beautiful than i could ever comprehend. and if that takes ashes and ink and clay and soot, so be it. 

and so i'm back to the words that i've been singing for three days. 

what wondrous love is this
// oh my soul
// oh my soul



7 comments:

  1. Oh, I love that translation of the verse from Psalms 46!

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  2. Wow. That must have been some experience to go through. Fire has always been such a scary force to me.

    But yes, what wondrous love is this. So grateful for his grace to dwell within us in places that can't be destroyed.

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  3. so blessed that you saw beauty in the ashes:) your writing has such a lovely, warming cadence:)

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  4. Dear Rachael
    Yes, I have found that as we allow Him to do the painting, a beautiful picture emerges! Visiting via Emily's.
    Much love
    Mia

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  5. It's hard to release the paint brush, but oh what a kaleidoscope of colors when we do. Praising God for sparing your son's home.

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  6. This is what I stand with you and say: and He spared the house like He spared my soul. Amen. Amen.

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  7. oh friend. oh. i love that the wind turned the fire away from the house... what a powerful story.

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I look at you and see all the ways a soul can bruise, and I wish I could sink my hands into your flesh and light lanterns along your spine so you know there's nothing but light when I see you. :: Shinji Moon