“There is no one like Jesus, there is no one like him. We walk, we turn, we search; there is no one like him.”
If you attended GRC’s 20th Anniversary Celebration on September 21st, you may have heard some kids and adults from our congregation singing these words. If you are like me (and I admit, I’m partial), hearing those voices singing – both in our language and in one from across the globe – brought tears to my eyes. So, besides the obviously amazing point of fifty GRC kids out-singing some of the loudest adults in our church family, what made it feel so special?
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). We talked through this verse every week for the month of August during our rehearsals with the kids who came out to sing. We talked about the amazingness of Jesus. We scoured God’s word, from Genesis to John to Revelation. We traced Jesus from being present at Creation to the end of all things, the Alpha and the Omega.
A few people commented to me how impressed they were that the kids, ages preschool through eighth grade, were really singing! How could this possibly be so?! My only answer is that I hope, I pray that it is because they somehow, through God’s grace, came to know more of who our Savior is. That God’s word never returns void, and that through singing and studying words of truth coupled with our fervent prayers for them, that it seeped deep down into the very core of their little beings.
Which in turn, leads us to YOU, church family. It is a wonderful thing, to be sure, to see little children giving praise to the Lord. But how much more so for us, grown adults, whose very lives are a testament to the life-changing work Jesus did on the cross? I think back to the first few months my husband and I attended GRC: here was a pastor from the pulpit and people in the congregation who talked openly of the ugliness of sin and the importance of the cross. It seemed perfectly normal to recognize that we were all fallen and broken people actually in need of a Savior. Our sin is grievous and real. And “thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He has not left us to bear it alone.
Next Sunday when you are in worship service, truly think about this. Think about how we might so easily expect children to sing joyfully about Jesus when what we really need to do is look humbly in the mirror. Our great and gracious God, who loved us and gave himself for us, whose way is so much higher and better than our own – can we ask ourselves: “Do I really, truly, believe all of this? And if I do; Lord, help me to love you and praise you as I ought!”
Erika Bourque serves on our Worship Arts team and is also one of our Youth Ministry leaders. She and her husband, Steven, taught the children’s choir to sing “Akekho Ofana” (There’s Nobody Like Jesus) for the 20 Year Anniversary Celebration.