Tender and Strong

Track ten widens the priesthood the last song just announced, and it widens it toward the people the church has most often pushed to the edge of the room. Tender and Strong is a thank-you to the women. I gave it to a man and a woman together, because it takes both voices to say it honestly - the man confessing what he missed, the woman naming what she carried.

The husband's verse is a confession. You saw the grief before I did. You felt the wound before I knew. You held the broken thing in silence while I figured what to do. The wife's verse is the quiet record of a real life. I have prayed behind the curtains. I have poured the cup of hope. I have watched my brothers argue while I made the broken cope. And the line the song will not let you miss, the one the chorus is built to protect - this is not the lesser gift. This is the stronger part.

That is the correction the song exists to make. A church that runs on argument and platform will quietly rank the tender gifts as second class. The bridge answers that with the only argument that settles it - the character of Christ Himself. Christ wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Christ cooked breakfast on the shore. Christ washed the feet of men who failed Him. Tender was the Lord. The women were made in the image of the love that bore it all. Tenderness is not the weak end of the body. It is the part most like the Savior. Thank God for the women - tender and strong.