Abba Piyanani

Abba, Father, beloved God,
Redeemer, and Holy Spirit

When I was cut off from you, still in the darkness,
it was you who sought me out
laying me upon your breast, kissing me always,
you became a shade over me

Abba, Father, beloved God,
Redeemer, and Holy Spirit

As I walked lowly, falling and falling,
you loved me still
wiping away my tears, taking me by the hand,
you showed the right way
thanks to you, thanks to you

You lifted me up from the garbage heap,
O God of love
Calvary’s blood, poured out for my sake,
washed away my sins
thanks to you, thanks to you

Day and night, staying together with me,
you kept me safe each day
never on any day, at any time, letting go of me,
glory belongs to you
thanks to you, thanks to you

This is a hymn of praise to the Triune God and a testimony of complete rescue, and it addresses God with the most intimate word of all, “Abba, Father,” the tender name Jesus himself used, alongside “Redeemer” (the Son) and “Holy Spirit.” From the first line, the whole of God is being thanked.

Its story is the story of a lost person found. “When I was cut off from you, still in the darkness, it was you who sought me out.” The initiative is entirely God’s; the singer did not find God, God came looking. And what follows is pure tenderness, “laying me upon your breast, kissing me always, you became a shade over me,” the picture of being held and sheltered like a child. Even at his lowest, “as I walked lowly, falling and falling, you loved me still.”

The most vivid image of grace is “you lifted me up from the garbage heap,” an echo of the Psalm that says God “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.” That rescue was sealed at the cross, “Calvary’s blood, poured out for my sake, washed away my sins.” Each verse overflows with the same response, “thanks to you, thanks to you,” and the song’s deepest comfort is its closing promise, that God has kept him “day and night,” “never at any time letting go.” What the listener is left with is the grateful joy of the utterly rescued, sought in the dark, held to God’s breast, lifted from the ash heap, cleansed by blood, and never, ever let go.