VISION OF GOD Lyrics

Blessed is she who believes without seeing

I have seen and that is a mercy

Scales off my eyes outside of my own doing

I look and I see

A woman bleeding

She's been bleeding for way too long

So now she carries blood and shame and has to be so tired

And there's a man walking

There's a lot of people around Him

She reaches for him stretching her hand that knows well the blood she's lost

For years

Her mind

Or maybe her soul

Or maybe all of her bones

Tell her that if she only touches Him

Even if it's not a full embrace

Even if He doesn't see her

If she touches Him

An inch of His clothing

She might know healing and wholeness

And so she touches him

And He asks my favourite question in all of scripture

Who touched me? Who touched me?

Not because He doesn't know

But because He cares for her visibility

He says

I know somebody touched me

Afraid and unsure she steps forward

And He blesses Her faith, blood dried up

She knows relief and this man knows Her

Blessed is she who believes without seeing

I have seen and that is a mercy

I look and see a 12 year old girl, me

I see her loving that man

With her whole heart

So easy to love

Mostly because He loved first

I see Her

Unaware of the waves ahead

The midnights

The 522

And stone cold-ness

I see her

Declaring

With all of her

Until her song starts to be

Prone to wander Lord I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love

And she reaches out to touch Him

Ten years later

And He asks my favourite question in all of scripture

Who touched me?

I know somebody touched me

Lord, it is I

I want to feel the blood of your wounded side

Look you in the eye

Hold your punctured palms in mine

Lord

What if I walk away?

Lord

Indifference is more palatable than the taste of my faith

Lord

I want to see you

Let the cloak that is your truth touch my imagination

What do you look like?

So He lifts up my chin

And

I look into the face of God,

And see the tears of Christ

His smile, I picture the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes

The callousness of His hands

I search for his palms and see that he holds grief and hope

acquainted with both of those

I listen for His voice

And He says

It's okay to lament

And He promises to put a praise on my lips

I find His feet and there's a seat by them for me

But then He sits with me

Makes Himself so small for me

And yet is bigger than I've made him to be

More nuanced than the frames that I've stuck him in

He turns power's manifestation on it's head

And flips tables on the basis of His righteousness

The embodiment of holiness

Got angry, and rightly

God with me is a convincing apologetic

I will believe in a God who is with us

In the trenches and highest of places

Incarnate

And Restorative

God who gathers to Himself all things

Maker of all things

Renewing all things

Oli ruhangowa bantu (you are a God of the people)

You come to us particular

Jewish messiah

Brown skinned and regular

Meeting us in our customs and contexts

You are in the continual working of affirming dignity

And we can trust Your sense of justice

Your ache for the broken

Your distaste for the wicked

You are a God who wrestles with us and wins

You omnipotent one

You wrap Your power in love

You are good

You are true

You are holy

And most of the time I'm too nearsighted to see

Or too bitter to believe

You are vast

Oh so vast and here I am

Give me

Give us

A holy sense of smallness

And strength in all of our weakness

Help us,

See you as you are–

You are so beautiful

So very beautiful