♪ Held

This song came out the same year we lost Grace.  The first time I heard it I was in public, hearing it performed live and also learning the story that inspired it.  I was surrounded by people from my church, who had mostly seen me dealing with our loss with much strength.  Needless to say, this song brought out my weaknesses.  I sobbed.

The song reminds me of the old poem “Footprints”.  God never promised to protect us from pain and tragedy, but He does promise to carry us through them.  If we let Him, He will hold us and never let go.

“Held” by Natalie Grant

Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To think that providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling
Who told us we’d be rescued
What has changed and
Why should we be saved from nightmares
We’re asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it’s unfair

This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held

This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it and
Let the hatred numb our sorrows
The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and tomorrow

This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held

If hope if born of suffering
If this is only the beginning
Can we not wait, for one hour
Watching for our Savior

This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held