Worship leader Kari Jobe is adding another award to her collection. This week she received The Dove Award for “Recorded Music Packaging of the Year” for her latest project, The Garden.
“That’s the first time to win an award for the packaging so it’s kind of a cool thing for me,” said Jobe in an exclusive interview with Studio 5’s Efrem Graham.
Jobe also shared the story behind the album’s title track, “The Garden.”
“Right when I was starting to write for this album, I didn’t know the theme yet or anything, I was pregnant with Canyon. my one-and-a-half-year-old, and my sister was pregnant at the same time,” Jobe recalled.
She continued, “Right at the end of her pregnancy, she gave birth to a sleeping angel who was already with Jesus before we got to meet her.”
Jobe, who was still pregnant at the time, said the experience sent her “entire family into this season of extreme disappointment, heartache and trauma.”
“I was just feeling really disappointed,” Jobe added.
She says an “an incredible mentor” reminded her she had to keep moving, “She [said]. ‘You have to grieve this, of course, but I’m not going to let you stay here and shut down.'”
Jobe recalls asking, “God, why didn’t you answer our prayers? Why didn’t you do a miracle?”
After some time, Jobe said she learned God had indeed done an “incredible miracle” in reaching her sister’s heart through the experience.
“I wrote ‘The Garden’ song for her,” said Jobe.
She added, “It was just a prayer for her.” Jobe said the prayer “was that faith would rise up in her heart again.”
Jobe said her sister’s “daughter that’s in heaven is named James Ivy,” and in the song, she uses the plant and name as a metaphor for faith.
“Faith is rising up like ivy/Reaching for the light/Hope is stirring deep inside me.”
“God has just used Ivy to remind us that He’s in control, He’s not forsaken us, we’re not forgotten,” said Jobe.
She continued, “Sometimes we just experience difficult stuff on this side of heaven, but God takes it and turns it into something beautiful every time.”
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