Gifts

We had been at it for months.  What started out as an exciting quest had grown to become a tedious search.  One evening as my family was leaving for another hunt for a new home, my then-seven-year-old-son drew a picture of a stick figure family standing in front of a house. His commentary of our home search came across loud and clear:  there was a big, fat X over the picture with the words “NO NO NO” written underneath.  It seemed we had exhausted more than just the MLS listings.

About that time, my sister-in-law came to our rescue.  She went for a walk in our neighborhood and found the house that would soon become our home.  It was only two blocks away from where we'd been living.  This wasn’t the first time she'd helped us make the perfect match.  She was also instrumental in getting my husband and I together in the first place.

I did a little exercise for the fun of it, contemplating how I came to find the things I value most in life.  So many times, I’m given precisely what I need exactly when I need it by means of another person.  These gifts have come in many forms:  besides my home and my husband, I’ve been given words of comfort, encouraging smiles, inspiring examples, and opportunities to serve that have helped me find a whole new facet of my life. 

God often works through people to inspire and bless His children—a touch of the Divine clothed in humanity’s hands and hearts.

Another way of putting that is found in the lyrics of a song my sister sent me (yes, another gift). 
Click on the link to hear it performed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqL2MZaor4k

Geodes by Carrie Newcomer

No, you can’t always tell one from another.

And it’s best not to judge a book by it’s tattered cover.

I have found when I tried or looked deeper inside.

What appears unadorned might be wondrously formed.

You can’t always tell but sometimes you just know.

Around here we throw geodes in our gardens.

They’re as common as the rain or corn silk in July.

Unpretentious browns and grays the stain of Indiana clay.

They’re what’s left of shallow seas, glacial rock and mystery,

And inside there shines a secret bright as promise.

All these things that we call familiar

Are just miracles clothed in the commonplace.

And you’ll see if you try in the next stranger’s eyes,

That God walks 'round in muddy boots, sometimes rags and that’s the truth,

You can’t always tell but sometimes you just know.

Some say geodes were made from pockets of tears,

Trapped away in small places for years upon years.

Pressed down and transformed, 'til the true self was born, . . .  

We have come to believe there’s hidden good in common things.

You can’t always tell but sometimes you just know.

Carrie Newcomer

(1958 -      )

Carrie Newcomer is deep.  She has a rich, deep alto voice. She is deeply rooted in her Quaker faith.  And she reaches deep into the soul.

An article written about her by Megan Quinn in the Daily Camera begins, “Each day, singer Carrie Newcomer tries to see the sacred in the ordinary.”  Judging by the lyrics she writes, she is accomplishing this effort.  A fan commented on that article that she is very giving, donating a portion of her proceeds to soup kitchens, thus feeding not only the soul but the bodies of people in need.

Newcomer has released a dozen albums since her first solo came out in 1991.  Before that, she sang with the group Stone Soup and has two albums with them.  She was invited by the cultural outreach division of the American Embassy in India to represent the U.S. in 2009, touring India for a month.  While there, she saw that love and hope bridge cultural differences.

Quoting from the biography on her website,

About her impressions of India, Newcomer says, “Music can be a language deeper than words.  I love our differences.  Cultures are rich and what makes each culture unique is to be celebrated, but I was powerfully moved by what we share as a human family.”

Carrie Newcomer is a folk artist who combines her faith with her music. She makes universal truths meaningful by attaching them to personal stories. 

Concluding, again quoting from the bio on her website,

The Minneapolis City Pages wrote, “Newcomer’s musing is deeply introspective, but she offers it with a poet’s sense of nuance and a folkie’s common touch, turning philosophical theory into the stuff of people’s daily lives.”

Source: http://www.carrienewcomer.com/