Grace

Featured song: Grace Like Rain, by Todd Agnew, from the 2006 album of the same name.

For me, the awesome thing about music is how it can take a moment, and make it suddenly slow to a stop, as the instruments and the singing suddenly wash over me, and I “hear” what is being sung as if it were for the first time. Possibly this happens because it is the music and words I specifically needed to hear at that time. To paraphrase what others have said, I believe that the reason music I hear on earth can sometimes cut so deeply is because it is a dim reflection of what the music in heaven will be like.

Today, I am dealing with a day that (so far) is a little less full of stress and strain than yesterday was. And as I drove from the hospital to my office, I’m enjoying the music playing in the car, and this song came on, and “washed over me”.

It was not a feeling of my wretchedness, my blindness, or my fears that spoke to me from this re-take on an old hymn. Rather, it was the chorus line: Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me. Grace. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. It matters not whether today I am battered by storms of stress, or experience a calm and easy trip – the day is covered by God’s grace.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see, so clearly

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, and all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, and all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, and all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

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