Breath of Heaven -
Luke 1:26-38, NLT - In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy,
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be
married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings,
favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the
angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid,
Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son,
and you will name him Jesus. He will be
very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give
him the throne of his ancestor David.
And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a
virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will
be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age!
People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in
her sixth month. For the word of God
will never fail.”
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything
you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Every year, when I hear this song
again, I am taken back to the time when I heard this Amy Grant classic for the
first time as young man in my twenties.
The song helped me see the Christmas story from Mary’s point of view in
a way I hadn’t before. To this day, the
song connects me with the awe I felt for a teenage girl who said yes to a
preposterous proposition – that the very Son of God would be born from her
womb.
“I am the Lord’s servant. May
everything you have said about me come true.”
By that time in my life, I too had said yes to God’s call on
my life and had just started seminary.
However, it had taken me six years to say yes to that call that I, like
Mary, had heard as a teen. I had said
“no” many, many times before I said “yes.”
Mary heard the plan for the first time, asked a couple of questions, and
then simply said “yes.” This was back
then, and still is today, astounding to me.
While I do not subscribe to the extent of the Catholic Church’s
elevation of Mary, I still revere her in a way that defies words. And this beautiful song, released in 1992,
always connects me with that reverence.
Imagine my surprise when I found
out that the original song, “Breath of Heaven” was written by Chris Eaton who
was a pianist for Amy Grant at the time.
Grant, who was pregnant at the time, heard Eaton’s song and asked him if
she could record it for her upcoming Christmas album. She further asked if she could rewrite the
verses to be from the perspective of Mary.
Eaton not only agreed but helped her produce the finished product. Because he said “yes,” millions have been
moved by the result.
This is the heart of our response
to God’s action. Will we say,
“yes?” God wants to guide our lives in a
particular way and he asks for our agreement to go in that holy direction. It’s not a once and for all “yes.” Mary had to keep saying ten thousand yes’s
until she found herself standing at the foot of a Roman cross watching her
child be crucified. And even after that,
there were thousands of more yes’s as she became one of the leaders in the
early Christian movement. She kept
saying yes. This is the crux of our
response to the Gospel. Will we too keep
saying “yes” to God.
Question: What does continuing
to say “yes” to God mean for you in this moment?
Prayer: Thank you God
for your patience with all of our no’s.
Prepare our hearts to say yes. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for people who are currently in the process of pursuing a call to full-time
ministry.
Song: Amy Grant - Breath of Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8_475FKJWQ&feature=youtu.be
Bonus: Chris Eaton’s
original version of “Breath of Heaven” has become even more dear to me than
Grant’s Christmas version. Here it is if
you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUSS7sC0ps
No comments:
Post a Comment