Embrace!
Embrace your gifts, all God’s given you
Embrace your friends, each one tried and true
Embrace the past, your joys and your mistakes
Embrace the future, and the choices you’ll make
Your gifts are the blessings God gives
Each person’s gifts vary quite a bit
Your gifts, a heavenly treasure
In which you’ll find much pleasure
Use your gifts, do God work, each and ev’ry day
Or the you that you are, just might go away
Your friends, the people that you love
Tell them you care, they’re your cherished ones
Spend time with your friends, in excess
Through them, each day has been blessed
Thank God, for all your friends, each and ev’ry day
Or the you that you are, just might go away
Your past is ev’rything you’ve done
Each shameful act, each glorious one
Each road or path down which you’ve turned
Each promise kept or bridge you burned
Remember where you’ve been, each and ev’ry day
Or the you that you are, just might go away
Your future’s looking very bright
The best days you’ll have if all goes right
Take a class, help a neighbor out
Read books, learn skills, make new vows
Try to improve yourself, each and ev’ry day
And the you that you are, surely’s gonna change
For the better
Greater than ever
God will embrace you
Fully embrace you
As one of God’s kin
Just as you’ve always been
Embrace the gifts, all God’s given you
Embrace your friends, each one tried and true
Embrace the past, your joys and your mistakes
Embrace the future, and the choices you’ll make
For the better
Greater than ever
God will embrace you
Fully embrace you
As one of God’s kin
Just as you’ve always been
One day you’ll look God, right in the face
And learn all the wonders of God’s full embrace
Copyright 1/31/2026 & 2/1/2026 John Lage, Jr. All rights reserved.
Last Friday, I was having a long coffee session with my close friend, Patrick Davitt. I stopped him mid-sentence after he used the word “Embrace”. I told him that the word had potential as the start of a song. Today, I woke up at 3:30 to go to the bathroom and sure enough the song started coming to me. As I was writing this back story near 5:00 AM, the iPad I was using gave me a low battery warning – 5%. I said to myself, I can finish this before that. I was wrong. It died. No problem, I had autosave on. It didn’t save anything. So this is try two. I probably only remembered 25 percent of what I was so satisfied with in the first draft. I’m happy with this take but the first one was better. The flood of words that hits me when I’m writing is great, but it comes so fast that what I put on paper doesn’t seem to imprint deeply on my mind. Thanks, Patrick, for the great idea! Well, it’s now Sunday, just after midnight. Version three is above with a flurry of improvements, still not the original but greatly improved IMHO. Lessons learned – save often, edit and review, appreciate all God gives you. I’ve included v2 below. Feel free to let me know if you think the changes made it better. Much to my chagrin, v1 seems gone forever.
Embrace – v2
Embrace the gifts that God’s given you
Embrace your friends, each one tried and true
Embrace the past, your joys and your mistakes
Embrace the future, and the choices you will make
Your gifts are the blessings God gives
Each person’s are very different
Our gifts a heavenly treasure
In which we should find pleasure
If you don’t use your gifts, each and ev’ry day
The you that you are, just might go away
Your friends are the people you love
Tell them you care, each and ev’ry one
Spend time with your friends, in excess
Then find, your life has been blessed
Be thankful for your friends, each and ev’ry day
Or the you that you are, just might go away
Your past is ev’rything you’ve done
Each shameful act, each vic-tory won
Each road or path down which you’ve turned
Each promise kept or bridge you burned
Remember all your past each and ev’ry day
Or the you that you are, just might go away
Your future is surely as bright
As each of the days you’ve ever lived
Take a class, help a neighbor now
Read a book, learn a skill, fulfill a vow
Try to improve yourself each and ev’ry day
And the you that you are, you surely will change
For the better
Greater than ever
Embrace the gifts that God’s given you
Embrace your friends, each one tried and true
Embrace the past, your joys and your mistakes
Embrace the future, and the choices you will make
For the better
Greater than ever
