oyster

(1998)

I wrote this after returning from a month overseas in short term missions. I was in Southern France, Italy and Switzerland with a singing group. I had never been that far from home (I lived in CA) and away from my mom, so it was a big trip for me. God used the trip mightily in my life, to say the least, in creating a passion for missions and worship.

I wrote "Oyster" after hearing a testimony of a college girl who was on another mission team that had returned from Venezuela. She had been walking on a beach scattered with oyster shells. She whispered a prayer saying how she felt scattered herself, not unique or really set apart, and wondered what God saw in her that was worth saving. But God reminded her that, though an oyster is plain and doesn't really draw attention as far as seashells go, they produce something so incredibly beautiful and valuable - a pearl. And not only are those pearls each different and set apart from one another, they start as nothing more then a grain of sand. That idea struck me and shortly after I wrote "Oyster". So, even when I feel like a boring, slimy, cold shell, I take hope that God can make even the crustiest oyster produce something priceless.

An oyster am I, in the sea with a spirit that is dry
An oyster in the sand, I was bitter when He took my hand

None the less, none the less He freed me
None the less He meets me where I am
He gave his son away
So an oyster, yes an oyster, I would not stay

He looks into me, He looks inside and what's He see
A little girl, holding her arms up and fighting the world

None the less, none the less He freed me
None the less He meets me where I am
He gave his son away
So an oyster, yes an oyster, I would not stay

Father what do You see? Why waste Your time on an oyster like me?
Child, you are mine and within you, within there's a pearl I find.
Father, what do You hear? Can You hear me screaming in Your ear?
Child, you are close you scream out loud and don't think I know

None the less, none the less He freed me
None the less He meets me where I am
He gave his son away
So an oyster, yes an oyster, I would not stay