Wow…it’s been months since I posted to this blog. Summer got busy with kids and pool plans, but truly I became preoccupied with something my husband, Jamie, suggested I do months ago, which was songwriting. Now, I’ve dabbled with this over the years, which usually involved me putting down lyrical inspirations as they came, but leaving it at that, neglecting the crafting that should follow the inspirations. I did go so far one long-ago year as to win an honorable mention in a John Lennon Songwriting contest. Then children came and the quiet, get-away time needed to continue such projects was just not there.
Maybe because I’m getting older, and maybe because music has meant so much to me, growing ever more so than less, I wanted to leave something of myself that my children could read later on, a small capturing of the eternal springs of faith to the Eternal Being of God.
Easier said than done.
In perfect timing, a friend posted a link to an excerpt from the booklet, “Hope…the Best of Things,” by Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni confides that she would like to bring her wheelchair to heaven, present it Jesus, almost to say thank you, for the weaker she had been while in that chair, the harder she leaned on her Savior. Then she states:
“And at that point Christ will open up our eyes to the great fountain of joy in his heart for us beyond all that we ever experienced on earth. And when we’re able to stop laughing and crying, the Lord Jesus will really wipe away our tears. I find it so poignant that finally at the point when I do have the use of my arms to wipe away my own tears, I won’t have to, because God will.”
Her sentiments brought welling tears to my own eyes. When I first knew of Joni, I was a child. I’d read her autobiography we’d ordered from television evangelist Robert Schuller, amazed at how she’d learned to paint with a brush held between her teeth. In her book she described the details of her tragic diving accident around age 18, and how she would face the rest of her life in a wheelchair. I was ten when I first heard her story, and many years have gone by since, and with each passing year, she has still been in that wheelchair, unable to do simple things like wipe away her own tears. Yet, she describes Jesus as possessing a great fountain of joy towards us, and she states this though she has not been able to walk, embrace another person or brush her own teeth for 44 years.
The lesson I learned from this excerpt prompted an overflow from my own sometimes weak heart, a confrontation with my weak thoughts that keep me spiritually wheelchair-bound, directing them to see only God, in eternal praise. As the woman in the gospels who knew she just needed a touch of the hem of Jesus to have His all, when we feel we might know just one touch of love from the Father, we have His all, for eternity.
Overflowing Fount of Joy
Overflowing Fount of Joy
Pinnacle of man’s delight
One drop of love, one drop of blood
Reckon me to dearest life
Overflowing Righteous One
When all around condemn me
Your boundless love, Your timeless blood
Beckon me to come to Thee
Oh Fountain so wide Oh Fountain so deep
Oh Fountain of Joy flow down over me…
Overflowing Faithful God
In Whom there is no lie nor guile
Whose perfect love, Whose perfect blood
Stand holy, pure and undefiled
Oh Fountain so wide Oh Fountain so deep
Oh Fountain of Joy flow down over me
Overflowing Fount of Praise
Awake my soul and sing of Him!
Of gracious love, of gracious blood
Oh can my heart take rest in them
Oh gracious love, Oh gracious blood
Oh my heart take rest in them…
© 2011 Angela Michelle Daniel Harris, All Rights Reserved.
I dedicate this post to Joni and her inspirational life. How she tenderly must know that the lies, guile and trickery that describe our enemy, in no way ever describes our God. How I look forward to one day seeing Joni participate fully in all that God has in store for us in heaven!
(Song video below)
(Song video below)
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