Jesus in a Love Song

I do not know if anyone else has this experience; when I heard certain love songs, I immediately associate them with Jesus. Some of them are Christian songs, most are not. But they all have to do with Love – they are songs that speak about unconditional love, and although they are written with an earthly beloved in mind, I can’t help but hear the words of these songs and think of my Divine Lover, one who created and completes my soul.

Just to illustrate what I am talking about, here’s a sample of love songs that have made me think of Jesus:

– Holy Water by Big and Rich

– You’ll be in my heart by Phil Collins

– I Run to You by Lady Antebellum

– Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis (At first I thought this was a bad song, she’s singing about a love which cuts her open…but listen harder, she’s singing about a love that cuts her open, and makes her feel, when she had been previously “closed off from love” and “my heart’s crippled by the vein I keep closing…you cut me open”…sometimes God cuts us open for our own good)

– I Just Call You Mine by Martina McBride

– All I Want is You by U2

– Lullaby by Dixie Chicks

– Open Your Heart by Madonna (yes, THAT Madonna! — I think this song is basically the gist of how God loves us)

When I hear these songs, sometimes I hear what God sings to me and to all of us about His love, sometimes I hear what I feel I’d sing to God about my love for Him. Think I’m nuts? Just give them a try, maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised like I was!

I’d like to think I’m looking at these songs the way that CS Lewis would have (a la The Four Loves). Of course I hear God in songs written for an earthly beloved, because God is ultimately the source and author of all love, both earthly and heavenly. Our earthly loves are echos of the Original, which is Love Himself, which is our God.

St. Teresa of Avila has been quoted as saying “God walks among pots and pans.” So why not in a love song?

Have you ever encountered God in an unconventional medium, or a place where you did not expect to?