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¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. ¹⁷Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NLT)

My message for Resurrection Sunday tomorrow is titled “Follow the Leader.” Because He has risen, we will one day rise, too. It got me thinking about Chris Tomlin’s song “I Will Rise.” I found this YouTube video with a woman singing the song in ASL – American Sign Language – a language of the deaf. While I’m not proficient in it, I love to worship in sign language.

I watched as the signer/singer signed along with the song enjoying the variation she used to express the meaning of the words, phrases and song. I was enjoying it…but was totally unprepared for the impact it had when she sang the last line – totally unexpectedly, I broke into tears! The way she signed “I will rise” at the very end of the song literally shows her/me/you rising to meet the One she has been singing to and about all along – and the sign she uses when her fingers meet means “together” with the body language that powerfully communicated “together forever.” After spending the afternoon immersed in 1 Thessalonians 4 (and 1 Corinthians 15  – great passage!), the singing of the song in sign had a powerful impact. I’m guessing that you don’t need to spend the next four hours in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians to be impacted, too. Check out the video and be blessed.

Because He has risen, we will one day rise too. Hallelujah!
And just for fun…here’s the same song signed a bit more expressively. I love the variation.

May you know His resurrection power. Have a blessed Easter.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2012 at 7:35 pm and is filed under God's Love, God's power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.