hosanna.

I stood in the courtyard. The blue and white marble was cool beneath my feet. He was sitting on the throne, before me. Water began pouring in, brilliantly clear water, overflowing from the ocean surrounding the cliff. It pooled, ankle deep. In the water I saw little black music notes, swirling with luminous colors. I had never seen water so clear, or so beautiful. It was praise. The water was what "Hosanna" looked like. From the water rose a strong sweet-smelling fragrance, it hovered above the water like a thin vapor. The tiles beneath me began to crack and split in some places, out of the marble vines sprouted up, twisting into large leafy branches around me. Some of them had big flowers, bright colors, like none I had ever seen. Then, the water was being poured into my mouth - I tipped back my head, eager for more. Praise was being poured into my mouth so that I could be a vessel to hold it, to sing it, to speak it. I felt a strong desire to tear my very skin off, to open up the cavity of my chest till all that remained was bones and my beating heart. I wanted more water. I wanted it to consume me.

Reality snapped back. Someone was speaking. They spoke of the negative names we give ourselves. They spoke of Jesus calling us His, and nothing else mattering. They spoke of taking those negative names stamping over them with the truth. His truth defeating the lies.

I was back. This time I felt a word emblazoned upon my head, like a brand - "child". The fragrance continued to fill the air around me. He looked at me and He said, "I want you to paint this." I told Him I could never capture it, that I wasn't very good at painting. He said, "Grace, paint it with your life. Paint the beauty of this place, with your life. Words of praise resting on your lips." It was then I remember where the water reached...the shores. This was praise seeping in from the shores, the people yet to be told. A smile lit up my face as I felt shivers of His joy run through me.