Jesus and Odette.

Lately when Odette comes to work she has been listening to music on her phone for part of the day. Yesterday she brought a small hand held radio.

She has been listening to music. And singing. And humming along.

If I am being honest, at first when she started listening to music it really bothered me. Silly. But everything is an adjustment here, especially having someone in my home three days a week for 9 hours a day. Someone that is a stranger, and does not speak my language.

And the first time she turned on her music I got really annoyed. I kept thinking, "this isn't her house, what is she doing? It's drowning out Marvelly's show! How rude!"

That sounds awful but it's true. My heart has not been pretty at times during this adjustment and I have to go to the cross daily, sometimes hourly, to empty myself and fill back up with Jesus.

But I recognize it. I know that this is new and hard and the only hope for me to walk this new life with grace is to walk it with Jesus.

So that is what I do. I walk with Him. And He whispers sweet encouragements to me and helps me to love and give and empty myself.

And I am seeing progress with my attitude towards Odette. Earlier in our arrival here I would dread the days that she would come, feeling awkward and out of place in my house. Not knowing how to act, or what to do, or how to interact with her.

But slowly, Jesus has begun to take those feelings and transform them. I no longer feel dread for her work days.

I look forward to them now.

I still feel awkward at times, but that is to be expected. Whenever she walks by the dining room in the mornings and sees me and Marvelly playing "people" with the silverware while we eat cereal....she's gotta wonder what the heck we are doing! And I don't blame her. :~) It's a very real possibility that she thinks we're completely weird....

But I am okay with that. Everyday I get more okay with that.

And I like it now when she listens to music. I like hearing what she listens to. It's just nice. It adds a wonderful new energy to the house. And a week or two ago as her phone sat on a chair in the hallway I heard it softly singing, "Hallelujah", and when Odette walked by she was softly singing it too.

"Haaaalleeeeeluuuuujah." 

"Praise Yahweh."

And she was. As she went about her work she was softly singing praises up to Jesus.

I can't really describe that moment. There was no translation needed.

That is one word that transcends every language.

Even "Jesus" is not spoken the same in different languages. In French it is Jésus (jayzoo), in Spanish the 'J' sounds like an 'h'. In Hebrew it is different yet.

But Hallelujah? It is the same.

And for the first time since I met Odette, I understood her perfectly.

But I didn't say anything. I'm pretty limited in what I can say right now. :~) So I tucked that moment away in my heart to see what else may come of it.

Yesterday when the girls got home from school I turned on their children's praise music as they painted. Odette was in the kitchen washing dishes and above the running water, I could hear her humming along to a song that was playing. She did not know the words in English, but she knew them still. Sydaleigh looked at me as she heard her too, and with eyes bright and big, she said, "Odette knows this song!"

Yes. She does.

She walked out of the kitchen still humming and I said in my broken french,

"Odette, tu connais cette song?" (I didn't know the word for song in French, so I just said 'song' and pointed to the ipod)?"  Translated....You know this song?)

She looks at me with a smile and says, "Oui." And off she walked to finish some other work.

Me and Sydaleigh looked at each other and I told her, "Odette knows your Jesus songs! How cool!"

Over the next thirty minutes as we sat and painted at the table listening to praise music Odette would hum to the songs she recognized, like, "Go Tell It On the Mountain" "Amen" "God is So Good".

And we would sit and smile and sing along and get excited for every song we heard her humming knowing that she must know and love Jesus like us.

As she got ready to leave for the day I heard the Lord encouraging me to ask her....and tell her. Even though I already knew the answer, He kept prodding me nonetheless to, "Ask her, and tell her. Don't let the opportunity pass."

I was suddenly nervous. It's crazy how fast I got uncomfortable and nervous at the idea of "point blank" asking her. My French is so broken. Communicating does not come easily. But I knew the basic words to say. If I could just muster up the courage to say them. If I could muster up the courage to be obedient to the Lord's simple request....

...so as I was standing in the kitchen as Odette prepared to leave I said, "Odette, tu amour Jésus?"

To which she again replied with a smile and a "Oui," and a hand on her heart.

I said with a smile, "Moi aussi." She smiled back big and nodded her head, understanding.


And there it was. In seven small words we shared our mutual faith in Jesus.

It was nothing fancy. There was no testimony or fan fare. It was simple and bare bones and stripped of everything but Jesus.

Just seven small words. And in that short exchange there was a greater depth of knowing each other than our past two months of effort.

And to think it all started with Odette's music.

In our shortcomings to communicate with each other the Lord in His faithfulness used music to provide a means to communicate a greater depth of understanding between us.

Since moving here I have been daily stripped away of so much. A little bit at a time He just continues to shed off everything I thought I knew about myself and life and Him. I wake up and feel naked and exposed and vulnerable. I try to cover up with the familiar but there is very little that is familiar left to cling to. And in it's wake He is teaching me new familiars. New truths. New ways to live. New ways to love. New ways to communicate. New ways to worship.

It's very humbling to be stripped down by the Lord. To be stripped of everything that you know and is familiar. Many days I feel like I am having to learn how to live all over again.

But He is faithful. He is rebuilding me. Of everything He digs up in my life He is planting something new. I wake up daily and present to Him my meager offering and He takes what little I have to offer and multiplies it.

The Lord doesn't need much to accomplish something significant. He showed me this again on Monday. He took my meager offering and created a beautiful exchange from it. He took a few children's songs, seven words and an obedient heart....to show us that we are both daughter's of the King.

 "It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night." Psalm 92:1-2