Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I have somewhat of a funny story to share with you today. It's one of those "misheard lyrics" stories where you get to laugh at me and my bad hearing.
Recently, our choir sang "Jesus Paid it All" (a great song; if you haven't heard it, you should look it up). I had listened to the song a bajillion times, but I had never seen the words. I always thought the second verse went like this:
For now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone
Can change the leopard's spots
And melt the heart of stone
I remember thinking that was a little odd, but I didn't think much about it. That is, until I saw the lyrics written down. The verse in question is actually:
For now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone
Can change the leper's spots
And melt the heart of stone
It wasn't talking about a leopard! It was talking about healing a person with leprosy! Duhhh! After a brief moment of "Ohhhhhhhhhhh! That makes sense now!", and smacking myself in the forehead (like those "could've had a V-8" commercials), I realized that my mistake actually was pretty funny. So I posted it on Facebook. I got a few good laughs, as I was expecting, and one of my friends had a similar story to share about a praise song she had misheard many years ago. Hey, it happens to the best of us, right?
And then, I got this one response from my friend Edie, and it later inspired me to write this blog post about the all-powerful God we serve:
"LOL. Well you know, He could change the leopard's spots too, if He wanted to."
My first thought at the time was, "Well, of course. He could do anything if He wanted to."
But then, I thought about it:
He could do anything.
Anything in the world.
This past week has been a trying one for me, to put it mildly. I have been struggling especially hard with temptation, and Satan has been hard at work on my soul, trying to tear me down. Last night, as I was searching the scriptures for guidance, I came across something amazing in the book of Isaiah. It's in chapter 35, which starts out talking about flowers blooming in the desert. But I think the coolest part is verses 5-6. Check this out:
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
That first part of verse 5 made me think of my best friend, who has been 100% blind since the day she was born. I imagined her with perfect vision in her beautiful brown eyes, able to see everything I can. Of course I know she will be able to see in Heaven, just like I won't have autism in Heaven, because that's how Heaven works. (Also, my dog will be housebroken, my chronic ear infections will be gone, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to sing exactly like my friend Kim.)
But that verse made me think about it differently: if He wanted to, he could give her 20/20 vision today. Right this minute, here on earth. Or, He could make me- with my perfect 20/20 vision- totally blind.
He could make a big, gorgeous, flowing river appear out of nowhere in the middle of the desert. He could make plants grow in places no plant has grown before. He could do anything.
In fact, if you don't want to speculate about what He could do, let's think about what he has done:
Isn't He the same God who spoke the world into being? Isn't He the same God who created everything from nothing, just by saying "let it be"? Isn't He the God who made every living creature? Isn't He the God who delivered the Hebrews out of bondage, the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who brought the plagues on Egypt and flooded the earth for 40 days and 40 nights? Isn't He the God who made Abraham's wife give birth despite her old age? Who healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, turned water to wine at the wedding at Cana, and fed five thousand with almost no food?
Isn't He the God who sent His only Son to die for our sins? And the same God who raised Him up again on the third day?
Yes, He is. Yesterday, today, tomorrow... from before time began, to right now, and for the rest of eternity, He is the same God. Same power, same wisdom, same everything.
And it made me think: God can do anything. If He can turn water into wine, why is it that we don't trust Him to turn our trials into triumphs? If He can make a paralyzed man walk or a blind man see, why can't we trust Him to help us do things we feel are impossible for us? If He can feed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, why don't we trust Him to provide for our needs?
Which brought my mind back to my botched song lyric, and my friend's response. And I wondered:
If He could change a leopard's spots, why wasn't I trusting Him to change my life?
Just something for you to think about.
Peace and blessings,
~BYR
