My childhood friend Okey introduced me to this song by Nathaniel Bassey. It has the exuberance and boundless joy that I remember in Nigerian praise songs. The song itself reminds me of Okey and his ever present gently positivity.
The song signals the conflating of black gospel and white Christian musical influences in the West African imagination. I hear both threads in this song. It reflects the complicated nature of our post colonial psyches and the bombardment of influences particularly through religion and pop culture.
Anyway. Enough of the academic thinking. I love this song. It is a reminder of our God who is a miracle worker. Translated from Yoruba, “Onise Iyanu” means the one who works miracles. And indeed don’t we all have testimonies of the wonders of God’s grace? I get to desperate places where I see no escape and it is only Onise Iyanu that sets me on a path that I had not seen before. I’m grateful for God’s consistency in my life, and in the lives of my children and husband and family. I realize that I have to humble myself, get passed my pride and anxiety, to claim the grace from which miracles come.
James 4:6 God gives more grace. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Gospel from Friends 