New Favourite Song

For Your Splendor

Christy Nockels and Nathan Nockels

I’m so concerned with what I look like from the outside.

Will I blossom into what You hope I’ll be.

Yet You’re so patient just to help me see.

The blooms come from a deeper seed that You planted in me.

Sometimes it’s hard to grow when everybody’s watching.

To have your heart pruned by the one who knows best.

And though I’m bare and cold. I know my season’s coming.

And I’ll spring up in Your endless faithfulness.

With my roots deep in You. I’ll grow the branch that bears the fruit.

And though I’m small, I’ll still be standing in the storm.

‘Cause I am planted by the river by Your streams of living water.

And I’ll grow up strong and beautiful, all for Your splendor, Lord.

So with my arms stretched out, I’m swaying to Your heartbeat.

I’m growing with the sound of Your voice calling.

You’re bringing out the beauty that You have put in me.

For Your joy and for Your glory falling.

“And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12

We pop the new CD into the player and settle in for a night’s rest. It’s Into The Glorious by Christy Nockels. I kneel beside my younger son’s bed and we pray about the day behind and the day to come.

I tell him I’ll stay for two songs, then I have to go fold laundry – ugh! He says he is much more important than laundry and I say Don’t I know it! But someone has to get it done or we’d all be walking around with nothing on! That gets a chuckle and we wait for the second song on the CD to play.

Then we sing the chorus – With my roots deep in You, I’ll grow the branch that bears the fruit…

And he tells me we sing pretty good together and he thinks I have a really nice voice. I thank him, knowing He hears the praise and not necessarily the pitch. The sound of praise is beautiful to him, and my heart praises every time I hear this song.

And though I’m small I’ll still be standing in the storm – how many times have the storms come? And how many times has He helped me to stand in those storms? He is ever-faithful.

A promise, a sweet, sweet, promise – I’ll grow up strong and beautiful, all for Your splendor, Lord. I know He’s growing me, growing my husband, growing my sons to grow branch(es) that bear fruit.

Trees speak to me – I love the look of them, the smell of them, the way they so willing sway at the beck and call of wind, dancing in His fingertips, so at ease, so at play. I am an absolute tree-hugger. And so when Christy Nockels sings about how people grow branches that bear fruit for Christ if they have their roots deep in Him, I really get it.

When David Crowder put out the song How He Loves and sang about how God loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy – I really got that too.

Elijah and I finish our singing for the night, I tuck him into his cozy little bed, all snuggled under the blankets, I kiss his super-smooth cheeks and go about the mundane. I bring the praise with me, and it helps when the mundane tries to overwhelm.

I will grow up strong and beautiful, all for Your splendor, Lord.

And I know that even the mundane gets me closer to who You made me to be.