(To listen to the podcast as you read, and to hear the song, Brushstrokes, at the conclusion, click here.)
Over the years I have written a few songs for weddings. Two wedding songs are included on my 2009 project called “Proof in the Mirror.” All of these songs are written from the perspective of Jesus singing over us. If worship songs are the songs that WE sing to God, these are the songs that HE sings back over us. I want to share the story behind the song “Brushstrokes” - the first of the wedding songs on this CD.
In May of 1998, Linda and I moved back to Chico from Southern California. I graduated from seminary and took a job at Neighborhood Church as the youth pastor. One of my first friends, and volunteers in youth ministry was Michael Wadlow. Michael has always had a huge heart for kids and for prayer. He and I have had many wonderful ministry adventures together.
When the fall of 2001 came around, I was looking for a new youth ministry assistant and hired a young woman named Amy LeDuc. She had been working on cruise ships and came back home to Chico. Amy and Michael started dating, and he proposed to her at the waterfall on Table Mountain in early November of that year.
They set a March 2002 wedding date, and asked me to officiate, and I had never officiated a wedding before. As the day was approaching, I was looking for a theme to tie their love story together. Michael is a great artist, a creative innovator and passionate about the Holy Spirit moving in our lives. Amy is a planner, a lover of kids and teens, she loves excellence and serving others – oh, and she loves to travel and have adventures.
So, what do you get when you mix the artist with a cruise director? Lots of intention in communication and sacrifice in preferring one another, which I have seen now over these 20 years they have been married. They are a great compliment to each other.
The word picture I used for the theme of their wedding quickly inspired a song I wrote just days before the wedding. I kept the song a secret until I performed it at their wedding with my wife Linda and friend Jim White.
This recording is just with my acoustic guitar as the only instrument, and Linda and I are singing together. It is a picture of the simplicity of the message of love that is central to the good news of Jesus. I believe that when my wife and I partner to do ministry together, even singing together, there is a greater power released than when we are on our own. This is true of Amy and Michael also. As they do ministry and they serve to build God’s kingdom together, they are so much better than alone.
Verse one comes out of the gate with what Jesus would say to them:
“I have come to bless you on this wedding day.”
The presence of God is so important to all of us, but especially to Michael, and I wanted to make sure I led off with his intention to bless and fill them with HIS love. Jesus also reminds them that He laid his life down to demonstrate His love for us and invites them to follow him and do the same. Jesus also explains that His mercy and grace have already covered them and asks if they will receive it and give it away, too.
Verse 1
I have come, to bless you on this wedding day
I am here, to fill you with my love
You have waited for this day for all of your lives
I am pleased to receive your sacrifice of praise
I have laid my life down, to show you my great love
Will you follow me and do the same?
I have shown my mercy and my grace has covered you
Will you receive and offer it too?
The chorus is where Jesus explains that he poured out his life for us so that we have life to the fullest. The Lord pours out His Spirit on us so that we will have the power to give to each other, to truly love each other selflessly and choose to lay our lives down in love.
This is what marriage is all about. Love is a verb; it is sacrificial and must come from heaven. We must position ourselves in a place to receive the love of the father, so we have love to give to others. When we put Jesus at the center of our marriage and receive His love, marriage is completely transformed.
Jesus continues in this chorus to sing about His grace and mercy that He shows us so that we will imitate Him in doing the same with one another. The end of the chorus says, “the moments of your sacrifice – the brushstrokes of your lives…” This theme of brushstrokes is supposed to be each moment of loving one another and putting each other first. It’s like putting a brushstroke of paint on a canvas, and the brushstrokes of our lives will then paint a picture of Jesus as we walk in love, and that will be a portrait of Jesus for the world to see. When we love each another, we show the world what Jesus looks like.
Chorus:
I have poured out my life that you might live
I have poured out my spirit that you might give
And love each other selflessly
To lay your lives down willingly
I have poured out my grace, so that you will be amazed
I have poured out my mercy, so you will give it all away
The moments of your sacrifice
The brush strokes of your lives
Are painting a picture of me
This will be a portrait for all the world to see
Verse 2 points to the future, and seasons changing, but the promise from Jesus is that He will remain the same. He will never leave us, and even when the storms of life come, we don’t have to be afraid, because He is always there to lead us home.
Home can have a few meanings here; ultimately, he will lead us to our eternal home in heaven, but the home this song really points to is a home together as husband and wife. While home is a geographical place, Jesus redefines our home together as a peaceful place of walking together with Him, praying, gaining strength from Him, and knowing that He will lead us. Home is a place of abiding with Christ and being connected to Him as we are connected to one another. The promises of faithfulness and consistency from Jesus here also point to our need to imitate Him in our marriage in faithfulness as well.
Verse 2
Seasons change, yet I remain the same
I am here, just trust me and obey
The storms of life will come your way
Do not fear, you will never be alone, I will always lead you home…
Home is where your heart will be, a place where you will follow me,
I’ll take you to the place where quiet waters flow
Walk with me and talk with me, I’ll strengthen you, and you will see
My faithfulness to you, I will always see you through
It’s a simple song that paints a great description of the marriage that Michael and Amy have been nurturing and growing in for the past 20 years. They have had ups and downs, but they have put Jesus at the center of their relationship consistently, and it has indeed painted a portrait of Jesus for the world to see.
In a culture that questions the value of marriage, this song points us back to marriage being a metaphor for Jesus and His church.
The Bible says that husbands are to love our wives like Christ loves the church and laid his life down for Her. Jesus explained that the world will know that we are his followers if we have love for one another. Love is the authenticating mark of true faith in Jesus, the love that we walk in and sacrificially give.
Over the years we have had the privilege of doing life and ministry with the Wadlow clan. When our third child was born, we named her Amy Kathleen Honoré Burchett, after Amy Kathleen Wadlow. Later, the Wadlow family expanded with the birth of their son Kaenan Michael in 2015.
I am so blessed to be able to do life and ministry together with Amy and Michael. Amy has become one of my closest friends. Over the years we have walked through the darkest valleys together and been able to celebrate some of life’s most joyous occasions. What an absolute joy it was to have the best view at their wedding. I am so thankful for Michael and Amy, and I am so proud of the picture of Jesus they are painting in their marriage.
As you listen to this song, may the words of Jesus inspire you to see your marriage as the opportunity to paint a picture of our Savior with the brushstrokes of your moments together of love.
This is part 5 of the series Music From My Heart. Watch for part 6 next week.
We invite you to join us this week for our Sunday Worship Service in the Dome at 10:00 a.m.
You can also live stream our service on Facebook and YouTube at 10:00 a.m.
