Is there a song in your life that somehow breathes Truth over you in nearly every stage of your life – continually illuminated and redefined to ground and deepen you – well, “Painting Pictures of Egypt” by Sara Groves is mine…
“I don’t want to leave here
I don’t want to stay
It feels like pinching to me
either way
And the places I long for the most
are the places where I’ve been
they are calling out to me
like a long lost friend
It’s not about losing faith
it’s not about trust
It’s all about comfortable
when you move so much
The place I was wasn’t perfect
but I had found a way to live
It wasn’t milk or honey
but then neither is this.
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt leaving out what it lacks.
The future seems so hard
and I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me cannot hold the things I’ve learned
and those roads closed off to me
while my back was turned
The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
familiar things are never easy
to discard
I was dying for some freedom
but now I hesitate to go.
I am caught between the promise
and the things I know
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt leaving out what it lacks.
The future seems so hard
and I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me cannot hold the things I’ve learned
and those roads closed off to me
while my back was turned
If it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
is that the reason behind
all this time and sand?
If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
is that the reason behind
all this time and sand?”
-Sara Groves
jenn crider 