We are poems of grace, and so are you.
New beginnings are a beautiful thing. Something new began when my choir came to sing at Peter’s childhood church. As we sang, Peter picked out my voice from the group and prayed a simple prayer. “Lord, I want to meet her someday.” That was 2004. One year later, we happened to be at a high school winter retreat together and I saw Peter at a piano playing a song he wrote. I confidently told my mom once home that I was “going to marry a man like Peter Assad someday.” God was putting down early roots of the life that Peter and I were meant to share. On March 12, 2006, Peter worked up the nerve to email me through none other than MySpace. He was singing for a talent show and wanted to use a request for me to sing with him as an excuse to get to know me. March 12 was truly the end of “me” and “you” and the beginning of “us.” I mean this in the healthiest way possible. We are not dependent on one another in an unhealthy sense, but what God initiated that day was the greatest partnership we weren’t smart enough to know we needed. But God is so gracious.
These 15 years have been a testament of what God started. Education, new careers, support raising, ministry, friendship, parenthood, church planting, and so much in between. 2020 was a year of redirection. We had been heading one direction and God was calling us to start down a different path. That path was honestly painful. It is excruciating to walk away from projects and friendships and dreams that have been built over the course of time, but we felt God’s prodding to follow and trust.
I have the image of Aladdin standing on the magic carpet and asking Jasmine, “Do you trust me?” This is an iconic moment in Disney history. Will Jasmine jump on despite limited assurance that this carpet is safe? What gives her confidence is that phrase triggering her memory of a “street rat” that saved her in the market. He also said, “Do you trust me?” He pulled through for her then, and he will now.
Walking with God this year has felt like that. I have seen Him move in the past. He has kept His promises and stood with me in the midst of challenges. So all this year, His phrase to us has been, “Do you trust Me?” As we started to take steps to answer “yes” to this question, it became more and more clear that He was asking Peter and I to come back to our roots. Creativity and one another. For years now, we have cheered one another on in ministry, but haven’t necessarily had the same directional focus. This year, God has asked us to embark on a path that leans into our unique creative gifts and allows us to use them together. Poems of grace has come from that place. Whether it is through story telling, music writing, sermon crafting, painting or singing, we want to communicate God’s incredible story with each one of you. We are enthralled with the story of God. He has made us whole in places we didn’t even know needed mended, and He makes us whole so we can help others become whole too.
So why poems of grace?
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, [...] But God...made us alive together with Christ. [...] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:1, 4, 8-10 ESV
The story of God is a phenomenal one—from Genesis to Revelation, from beginning of time to present day 2021. God is a remarkable story-teller, and these verses in Paul’s letter to the Christians in ancient Ephesus sum up God’s remarkable story for mankind succinctly and poignantly. We were spiritually dead—without breath or hope in life—and now we have abundant life and freedom through His immeasurable grace. Paul then goes on to describe us as God’s “workmanship.” This word in the Greek language in which it was written points to the idea of a masterpiece or a trophy. We are God’s living, breathing, walking, talking trophies of His majestic grace. When God’s grace is embraced, His remarkable story collides with our own and we can now walk as living masterpieces of His phenomenal work. God then uses every available resource that you possess as a declaration of His love for you and those around you. Your very life becomes a testament of His extravagant work, and His grace can reach as far as your abilities will take you—and beyond because He gives you His Spirit to help!
Our story collided with the story of the God of the universe. We want to use every available resource at our disposal to magnify His incredible grace. Whether it is through story telling, music writing, sermon crafting, painting or singing, we want to help you see this incredible story of betrayal and forgiveness, unfaithfulness and steadfast love, utter despair and eternal hope. Spend some time with us here and see how God’s story draws you in and compels you to look for the beauty that is everywhere around us. So whatever your story is, Peter and I cannot wait to hear it. And we cannot wait to show you in the coming months and years the story of His grace in our lives through word, art, and song. Thank you for taking time to sit with us here and look upon God’s beauty.
