Dame tus ojos

One of the beautiful things about learning another language is that you get to experience worship in that language. Sometimes I get caught up in the "Englishness" of being a Christian. I read the Bible in English, I pray in English, I sing in English, I do all the Christian things in English. And I sometimes forget that God's love is for everyone, and his words are available to everyone (well almost. I know that WYCLIFFE Bible translators are hoping to have the Bible into every language by 2025. There are still people without the Bible in their own language, but that number gets smaller every day.). Revelations says over and over "To every nation, tribe, language and people." The Bible was not written in English, nor are it's words only for speakers of English. I'm saying this as much as a reminder to myself as to everyone else.

Anyways. So in learning Spanish I've had the amazing opportunity to experience worship in Spanish. The Truth is the same. The words are just slightly different. One of our Spanish professors has been leading Spanish church Sunday mornings before regular church, and it's been a really cool time of worshipping and learning to worship in another language. One of the things I like best about this time is every week Profe says "God doesn't care about the grammar. He knows what you are trying to say, even if you end up saying it wrong." Praying and singing in another language is hard! It's a completely different set of words that you don't ever use in normal speak, so it can be kind of intimidating. But Profe's right. God knows what's on our hearts. So what if it comes out poorly as far as grammar is concerned?!

The other thing I really enjoy about Spanish church is our music worship time. We usually just find some songs on Youtube and use those as the base of our worship. It's been cool for me to see my personal growth in learning Spanish as I begin to understand the songs and not have to mentally translate all the time. If you've never tried learning a different language, this might not make sense to you. But when you learn you go through stages where you mentally translate, and then at some point there's a breakthrough and you suddenly understand the language in that language. It's hard to explain. It becomes more than words, and more...natural? I don't really know what I'm saying....Anywho. So I've been able to see my Spanish capabilities grow as I am able to worship easier. I actually understand the words I'm saying, and how the language works in a musical, worship sense. Again, it's hard to explain. I wanted to share two of the songs we sang today with you. And since I know that most, maybe all of you don't speak Spanish, I'll try to make a translation of them. It'll be a loose translation, because somethings just don't translate well. But I'll give it a go.

Dame tus ojos                                  Give Me Your Eyes
Dame tus ojos , quiero ver               Give me your eyes, I want to see
Dame tus palabras, quiero hablar    Give me your words, I want to speak
Dame tu parecer                              Give me your essence (being? Self?)

Dame tus pies, yo quiero ir             Give me your feet, I want to go
Dame tus deseos para sentir            Give me your desires so that I can feel
Dame tu parecer                              Give me your self (not sure how to properly convey this.)

Dame lo que necesito                      Give me everything I need
Para ser como tu                              So that I can be like you

Dame tu voz, dame tu aliento         Give me your voice, give me your breath
Toma mi tiempo es para ti              Take my time, it is for you
Dame el camino que debo seguir   Show me the way so I can follow (loosely translated...)
Dame tus sueños, tus anhelos         Give me your dreams, your desires
Tus pensamientos, tu sentir             Your thoughts, your feeling (opinion? view?)
Dame tu vida para vivir                  Give me your life so that I can live


Déjame ver lo que tu vez                Let me see what you see
Dame de tu gracia, tu poder            Give me your grace, your power
Dame tu corazón                             Give me your heart
Déjame ver en tu interior                 Let me see inside you (kind of...)
Para ser cambiado por tu amor        So that I can be changed by your love
Dame tu corazón                             Give me your love.

Powerful words. ¿No? Here's the other one:

La niña de tus ojos                     The Apple of Your Eye (The Child of your Eye)
Me viste a mi                              You saw me
Cuando nadie me vio                  When no one else saw me
Me amaste a mi                           You loved me
Cuando nadie me amó                 When no one else loved me

Y me diste nombre                     And you gave me name (You named me)
Yo soy tu niña                            I am your child (literally daughter)
La niña de tus ojos                     The child of your eye (apple of your eye)
Porque me amaste a mi               Because you loved me

Me amaste a mi                           You loved me

Te amo mas que a mi vida          I love you more than my own life.

*La niña de tus ojos literally translates to the daughter of your eyes. It's similar to the English phrase 'the apple of your eyes.' I really like the picture of being the child of God's eyes. I think there is a special love between a father and his children, and it's powerful to think of us being the children in God's eyes. And he does love his children!

I'd encourage you to look up some worship in other languages. Find the translation and follow along. You may not understand the words, but that doesn't mean they aren't still words of praise to our Lord. En cualquier idioma, podemos dar las alabanzas al Señor. A Él, no le importa el idioma. Y eso es todo para ahora.