Saturday Song Stories - "Oddity"

[od-i-tee]
1. an odd or remarkably unusual person, thing, or event.
2. the quality of being odd; singularity, strangeness, or eccentricity.
3. an odd characteristic or trait; peculiarity.

When I perform Oddity live, I invariably have someone come to me and either say, "I loved that Odyssey song", or "What in the world does oddity mean?"

This song was originally recorded for the Hope In The Midst of a Storm album, a fundraiser for the Janeway Children's Hospital in St. John's. I wanted to contribute this one in particular because of the message.

Have you ever know anyone with a disease like cancer. My father is bravely fighting a battle with cancer at the moment. It's not a fair disease. In fact, there are few things that make sense in our world. There are so many diseases, inhumanities, hurts, frustrations and disappointments, that they become the norm. Pain and hatred sometimes seem like the patterns of this world. We've adapted to their presence, so much so that we do nothing and then justify our inaction.

Then love comes on the scene. I'm not talking about love that is prepackaged by the media, or a false love like "I love Tim Horton's" (Which I do, by the way). I'm talking about a love that is pure and rich and bottomless...so much so that it is an irregularity in the pattern of this world. In the way that our humanity operates, God's love can only be considered an oddity.

"You took a criminal heart and you gave it reprieve, You took a barren soul and you helped it conceive...This love is an oddity, this grace an anomaly, and I've never seen anything like this before."