Beauty Will Rise

Steven Curtis Chapman wrote this song after the tragic death of his 5 year old adopted daughter, Maria Sue. She was hit by a vehicle driven by his older son as he was coming home and she had been playing in the driveway. He never saw her.
In her honour, Steven and his wife developed and built a hospital in China following the horrific earthquake in 2008 to serve the population who had survived this tragedy.


BEAUTY WILL RISE Lyrics and Music by Steven Curtis Chapman

It was the day the world went wrong
I screamed til my voice was gone
And watched through the tears as everything came crashing down
Slowly panic turns to pain
As we awake to what remains
and sift through the ashes that are left behind
But buried deep beneath
All our broken dreams
we have this hope:

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
And we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
For we know, joy is coming in the morning...
In the morning, beauty will rise

So take another breath for now,
and let the tears come washing down,
and if you can't believe I will believe for you.
'Cause I have seen the signs of spring!
Just watch and see:

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
And we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
For we know, joy is coming in the morning...
In the morning...

I can hear it in the distance
and it's not too far away.
It's the music and the laughter of a wedding and a feast.
I can almost feel the hand of God
reaching for my face to wipe the tears away,
and say, "It's time to make everything new."
"Make it all new"
This is our hope.
This is the promise.
This is our hope.
This is the promise.
That it would take our breath away to see the beauty
that's been made out of the ashes... out of the ashes...
That it would take our breath away to see the beauty that's been made out of the ashes...
out of the ashes...

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of this darkness... new life will shine
and we'll know the joy is coming in the morning...
in the morning...
beauty will rise!
Oh, Beauty will rise
Oh, Beauty will rise
Oh, oh, oh, Beauty will rise
Oh, oh, oh, Beauty will rise
Oh, oh, oh, Beauty will rise


The debut single from multi-platinum selling artist Steven Curtis Chapman’s upcoming project Beauty Will Rise, “Heaven Is The Face,” has been welcomed with open arms. Available digitally on September 8, the single released to radio August 21 and has already pulled at the hearts of many. Thirty-one stations have added the single already, quickly finding that it is resonating with all who hear it, offering light in a dark place:
"Heaven Is The Face” is a song that takes you a little deeper each time you hear it,” says Tulsa, OK, KXOJ Program Director, Bob Thorton. “The first time all I thought about was Steven and Maria. The second time all I thought about was the door of Heaven and the mystery of not being able to see the other side. The third time and each spin since, it's become a more personal song that takes me into simultaneous thanks for the present and worship for what is to come. This is raw, honest depth from our greatest writer." “The lyrics are specific to the Chapman story, but the Hope shared is something we can all cling to,” says Sandi Brown, General Manager of JoyFM in St. Louis.
Outside of radio circles, the media are also vocalizing their support for the song and Chapman family: "Heartbreak and hope are powerfully intertwined in the lyric of this incredible song. Chapman has always had a gift for sharing how real and vibrant his faith is through his music, and even after the loss of his precious daughter, that faith remains and continues to inform his artistry. I can think of no more powerful testimony."- Billboard “’Heaven Is The Face’ marks the return of Steven Curtis Chapman to music for the first time since the tragic loss of his adopted daughter last year, and the new single is a deeply emotional journey that addresses Chapman’s personal hopes and struggles throughout the painful season. It’s a beautiful song and a gift to anyone who knows what it’s like to experience loss.”-Jesusfreakhideout.com
“ ‘Heaven Is The Face’ portrays what Chapman <http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2770-Christian-Entertainment-Examiner~y2009m4d29-Michael-W-Smith-and-Steven-Curtis-Chapman-together-for-the-first-time-on-The-United-Tour> , his wife Mary Beth, and their family describe as ‘grieving with hope.’ This song resonates with a psalmist’s dichotomy of loss and sorrow, hope and longing. It digs deep within the pain to find something to offer others; a promised eternal life where pain and tears do not exist and where love and joy abound.”-Examiner.com
"Heaven Is the Face is a testament to Steven Curtis Chapman's perseverance in the face of tragedy. He continues to excel as a songwriter, but most importantly, is a living testimony to the power of hope and healing."- Freelancer and Gospelmusicchannel.com contributor.
As Chapman explains it, “Heaven Is The Face” is a song that he never wished to write:“Obviously heaven has become a much more real place and something I long for more now than ever before. I can’t wait to see the face of my little girl that I long to see again. I’m saying to God, ‘You know my heart, and I know that heaven is so much more than that, but right now Lord, this where my heart is.’ So I’m just crying out to God with this song, and it’s as honest and personal as I’ve ever been; I just poured out my heart.” Beauty Will Rise is a collection of 12 new and profound songs created over the past 15 months during the walk through the darkness of the loss of his daughter Maria and while God continued to meet him there on the journey. Part lament, part praise, part grief, part hope, part wrestling, part pondering; these tracks resonate as Chapman’s personal psalms. It is a desperately hopeful, raw, personal, and honest recording that is likely the most important of his already incredible 20 plus year ministry. “I began this process a couple of months after May 21st, not really knowing if I would ever feel like I could sing, stand on stage again, or express the emotions, the grief and the loss in music. But, in the days that followed, I felt that God was allowing me to write my own psalms, and that’s really what these are to me; a collection of my own psalms, laments, ponderings, and God meeting me and my family in the grief and in the midst of our journey of the last year. It’s been an amazing, wild process; very raw, real, honest.”
www.stevencurtischapman.com