This time each year, I get this opportunity to share my personal favorite song for this year's Easter weekend celebration.  The first time I heard it was on the final morning of Escape To The Lake 2016.  The community gathered for a time of reflection, communion, and songs of worship led by Jess Ray, Kyle Aaron, and Taylor Leonhardt.  They started playing a song that was a perfect fit for that atmosphere. Even though it was the first time I heard it, the song somehow felt familiar and easy to sing with in a corporate setting.  So much so, that until a couple of weeks ago, I had assumed that was a cover version of a nationally-known chorus from one of those big-wig worship artists.  My favorite song for Easter 2017 is:

"Behold" by Taylor Leonhardt

Taylor is a phenominal, young singer-songwriter - and in this song she shows how she's not only gifted in the world of storyteller music, but she can also write a passionate and well-crafted worship anthem.  You'll find the lyrics below, which are worth reflecting on.  One of my favorite parts about Easter is the reminder that our Savior is in the Resurrection business.  This goes beyond the empty tomb.  We are all broken, wounded, poor, blind, and weary to some extent. Yet, out of His great love for us, he is offering resurrection to every inch of our souls - and because of the Cross and the Grave, we now have new life in Christ.
 

We asked Taylor Leonhardt to share the story behind this wonderful song:

I was drawn to this wonderful conversation found in  J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King:

Samwise: “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?"  Gandalf: "A great Shadow has departed," and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land.

I loved that line - everything sad coming untrue - and wanted to capture what that would look like in the verses of the song. What happens to the empty, the wounded, the broken, the poor, the blind, the chained, the doubtful, the outcast, the orphan in the kingdom of God?  I believe Jesus when he said in Revelation “Behold! I am making all things new!”  I believe we are headed to a day where sorrow is no more, but that even now, Heaven has entered our world through the person of Jesus.  Into our lives of pain, sorrow, and darkness, he breathes healing, joy, and glorious light.

LYRICS TO "BEHOLD"

The empty filled, the wounded healed
The broken back together
The poor are blessed, the weary rest
We will dance forever

The blinded see, the chained are free 
The doubtful now believer
The outcast known, the orphan home
You are my redeemer

Chorus: 
Behold, Behold, Behold what love can do 
Behold, Behold He's making all things new

The lost returned, the voiceless heard
The mourner now rejoicing
The mountains shake the world awake
Creation all composing

The sad untrue, the earth renewed
The song has found its singer
The darkness light, the dead alive 
You are my redeemer

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You can purchase this song on the new EP All Things New, which features this song by Taylor, plus songs by Trey and Jess Ray.