Next on the itinerary... and a whole new world

My sore throat's barely ended - but a cold has set in. The sneezing fits began yesterday afternoon, after my nap. My nose is prevailing in its copious productions - against all odds and antihistamines. I hope that the cold will be gone before the graduation events next week - or I will be tired out.

Oh well, on the brighter side, we've just stocked up on toilet tissue the previous weekend... 30 rolls of those huge, compact ones. It's like how the Malay proverb goes: "Sediakan payung sebelum hujan." (Literally: Prepare umbrella before the rain.) Looks like we did it right!

A Whole New World from Disney's Aladdin (composed by Alan Menken and Tim Rice) was playing on the radio today. I've never really paid much attention to its lyrics all the while, but somehow, the words caught me good today - and made me tear. I know it was originally a ballad between the lovestruck Aladdin and Princess Jasmine about the "whole new world" they were to discover together - but I suddenly imagined that it was the Lord's words spoken into my wondering (and wandering) heart with regards to the new life I have been given in His death... A life received by grace through faith - one that makes all the ugliness, brokenness, uncertainties and sufferings of the world different and redeemable, as I see them in a new light (and from a different angle). There is hope in God's redemption through Jesus Christ. I hope it doesn't sound heretic/blasphemous, haha - but this is A Whole New World, my version:

God: I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?

I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming

Me: A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here, it's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with You

God: Now I'm in a whole new world with you...

Me: Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feelings
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky

A whole new world
(Don't you dare close your eyes)
A hundred thousand things to see
(don't Hold your breath, it gets better)

I'm like a shooting star
I've come so far
I can't go back
To where I used to be

God: A whole new world
(Every turn a surprise)
With new horizons to pursue
(Every moment gets better)

I'll chase them anywhere
There's time to spare
Let me share this whole new world with you

A whole new world
That's where we'll be
A thrilling chase
A wondrous place
For you and Me.