Bring Us Home
We remember the chains we carried,
won't forget about the day we left
Every heart still beats with hope of a promise made,
a promise kept.
We are a broken and hurting world, Lord. We need a home, somewhere to rest and find the connection and hope for which our hearts cry. We need this home now - we can't survive without one. Bring us home.
No mercy in the high noon desert,
no shadow gonna block the sun
Still covered in dust from all our yesterdays
and days to come
Father, You have built this need into our hearts. We are created in Your image, and therefore we instinctively know the truth of Pascal's words - "there was once in man a true happiness...this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself". (Pensees, pg 84) We try to fill the abyss with so many things - four walls, two arms. Small waistlines, large bank accounts. Desperate goals, promises of peace, dreams turned into harsh taskmasters. Golden calves & extra manna. But in the end, those are houses of cards and they collapse like the walls of that city.
Every turn is a new temptation,
you wanna bow down to something new...
Yahweh, oh Yahweh
bring us a new day
Pain points us to this home, but we shrink away. We know that You have the answer, but it seems safer to cover our ears and close our hearts and take the easy way out. Because if one home won't welcome and keep us in the way we wished, another one surely will. And so we become nomads looking for the next watering hole, the next oasis, the next house built on a foundation of sand.
Bring us home
Lead us to the highest wall
Every single stone will fall
We have never walked alone
Only You can bring us home
You have a home for us, though. Praise God, You have a home for us. A home we can find safety and solidity and peace in, right now, and His name is Emmanuel. Because of Him, You tell us that we cannot fathom the depth and breadth of Your love, that You will give us all things, that You went through the ultimate rending and tearing for us, that You love us with an everlasting love, that You are our Father. Our help in ages past and our hope for years to come, and our eternal home.
Every teardrop in the sand
Longing for a distant land
We have never walked alone
Only You can bring us home
You tell us that we can find security and fulfillment and a rock - a permanent home - in Christ our Lord, now. And so we, by unimaginable grace, enter this home and are told that here, we are forgiven. Here, we are free. Here, we are loved. Here, our dead hearts and failed card houses are not held against us. Here, we are righteous.
...In seven days everything was made
And in a week,
It's crazy how everything can change
Yeah, and we gonna march around this wall
'Til we hear the Lord's call,
hoping life will never be the same
So we unpack and learn to live with the other occupants, in love and truth and wisdom and grace. You guard us with a fierce love and You break down our sinful habits and hearts. You feed us with the richest bread of life and the sweetest water from the most bottomless of wells. When it hurts, You remind us that You work every last thing for our good and You will walk every dragging, stumbling, crawling step with us.
So when your life is all a wilderness
And your darkest night is every one you took a breath
All you know to do is follow hoping for a new tomorrow
Where your sorrows don't exist and pain is put to death
We see this and we say, "Lord, we are truly grateful. But we would know - when will the painful steps end? When will we be able to leave our fear at the door? When can we shed our frail selves?"
As we stomp around a seventh time
I anticipate a taste of what He says is mine
You answer us and say, I go to prepare a place for you. And I will come again and take you to myself, so that you may be with me. I am leading you to your Canaan. This, my sons and daughters, is your eternal home.
Cry, cry, until you see it fall
Until you look beyond a wall and you see it all
This home, my children, is perfect. There is no pain. There is no fear. Every tear is wiped away and every scar is healed. Every weary soul is finally and fully refreshed. Here, anger does not build callouses over your hearts; in fact, anger does not exist here. Here, voices are not raised and barbed words are not slung. Bodies do not break and brains do not panic. Here, sirens do not light up the night, bullets do not sear the air, screams do not echo across the landscape. Wind and water do not destroy you here, and fire does not wipe out your lives. Enemies do not attack my pilgrims, men, women, and children. Here, metal does not crush against metal and vehicles do not spin off into ditches, shearing neurons and slicing skin on the way. Here, your hearts will not race in shock and fear. Families do not shatter, children are not murdered, and my Word is not defamed. Here, you have the answer to your questions and hopes and tears and prayers.
Bring us home
Every single stone will fall
Here, you are healed.
Here, you will lay down your burden and stand straight and tall.
Here, you do not have to fight anymore.
Here, you will finally know the depths of my love.
Here, you are with me.
We have never walked alone
Only You can bring us home
Here, you are home.
Bring us home...
Bring us home, Lord.
Only You can bring us home
Bring us home.
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