"Yellow and gold as the new days dawns
like a virgin unveiled who waited so long
to dance and rejoice and sing her song
and rest in the arms of a love so strong"
(Josh Garrels "Beyond the Blue"
This song by Josh Garrels explores the transition that happens at salvation from a Christian perspective. Using the imagery of a sunrise and a marriage, this quote expresses what Garrels felt during his own experience of conversion. The imagery of a sunrise is employed to demonstrate the sense of hope and freshness he felt, becoming for him a consistent reminder of his experience. He also compares his experience to a virgin being wed to her bridegroom. Filled with confidence in love, she is unveiled before her lover in glorious splendor in a moment that is both joyous and consecrated. He projects his own encounter onto these two events (and others throughout the song), which not only deepens his future experience of sunrises and weddings, but also makes his encounter accessible and relatable. Many people have seen the glory of a sunrise and witnessed the beauty of a wedding, but not everyone has necessarily had the sort of salvation experience Josh Garrels describes. By making this connection though, he allows other people to, at least in some degree, feel what he felt. In this way, poetry and forms of art, by employing metaphor, allow others to enter into the artist's experience without having necessarily lived through it.
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