A Profound Mystery
Carla and I have recently been finding glimpses of God in music that may or may not have been originally intended for His glory. There are a lot of songs that become very inspirational when put into a spiritual context, when they could have originally been fodder for “Love Songs at Night.” In our concerts, we’ve covered the Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand By You,” and Toad the Wet Sprocket’s “I Will Not Take These Things for Granted.” It works in the opposite direction as well - our wedding song was Susan Ashton’s “No One Knows My Heart,” which isn’t so much about weddings or human relationships, but giving one’s heart to God.
When we played at a couples’ retreat this past Valentine’s Day, it became abundantly clear. Marriage, as many people have said more eloquently than I ever will, works on at least two levels: the first is the physical and emotional level of human “love,” the second, best explained in Ephesians 5, is symbolic of Christ’s love for the body of believers, his “bride.”
If our human traditions based around “love” can resonate with a meaning much bigger than what’s originally intended, than why can’t our music based around love do the same? As Christians, our feelings about the ones we love are ultimately rooted in the praise of God himself. For example, when I hear a song like Bethany Dillon’s “For My Love,” I hear more than just a 15-year-old longing for the man who will sweep her off her feet, I hear her recognizing that in this someday fantasy of Prince Charming is a reflection of God’s reality. It’s not be the whole truth of God - it’s incredibly difficult to squeeze the few thousand pages of the bible into a 3-minute pop song - but it’s an illustration of something visible that connects with a higher truth.
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