I want to write about a song that echoes the cry of my heart.
Music has always been embedded in the fabric of my life (God saw to that), and from as far back as I can remember I can’t help but feel an irresistible pull in my soul when I hear a passage of music that seems to emanate directly from Heaven. Not all of the music I really like feels this way, but in some sense I am usually extremely attentive in order to discover this Heavenly quality, even if it may only exist in a passing moment; even if—due to a mixture of unrepeatable conditions—that passing moment is barely a crack in the cloudy sky that I only get to peer through once.
As anyone who enjoys music at any level will eventually tell you if pressed long and hard enough, there is almost no adequate explanation—logical or otherwise—that can be offered to defend one’s tastes in music; nevertheless, our tastes are not arbitrary. In one way or another, we all have the ineffable capacity to yearn for Heaven, and since each one of us bears the unique fingerprints of God, we all yearn for Heaven in different ways. We can hardly offer a better reason for the things we like, except that since God made us each in His infinite image, His threads of delight woven in and through us are also innumerable.
But for all the unique gifts He bestows to meet every unique need, He gave us one thing of Himself which is completely unalterable: a Truth so singular, a gravity so powerful, that nothing and no one can help but be oriented to it in the same unavoidable way. His son Jesus is precisely that Truth we may not escape; we can only be united to Him, or be eternally tormented by isolation from Him. His sacrifice for my sin of self-isolation opens the door to Heaven, and as I experience His mercy, I meet the Holy Spirit and new life begins.
Sure, you say. Jesus walked the earth; that’s acceptable. But it’s tricky to grasp these ideas of God, Holy Spirit—concepts and beings for which we have no material evidence that can be verified by the senses He gave us for interacting with a material world. And rightly so, because there can be nothing inside the universe of knowable, measurable facts that could remotely be compared with the Source from which all facts subsequently proceed. He is greater than all that we can experience with our senses; when we experience the cry of Heaven within our hearts, it is not because by some random chance we were lucky enough to be listening the right way. He awakens our spirits by the sound of Heaven so that we can hear Him properly.
Everyone innately knows the sound of Heaven. God designed us in such a way that we each carry a hunger for His Presence that only Jesus can satisfy, and we each have a unique keyhole that He unlocks to implant within us a direct receiver, a code-breaker—The Holy Spirit—who develops within us the ability to connect deeply with the language of His Word and His family, and to recognize the sound of Heaven in some utterly indescribable way.
“Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
— Matthew 13:9
By now I’m sure you are wondering, what song was all this fuss about? There are so many I could have chosen, but this is one I have been listening to on repeat, and one which I will soon attempt to lead in a worship service. It was written by Garrett Tyler, Jared Runion, Justin Amundrud, Lauren Strahm, Michael Fatkin, and Trea Bailey and recorded and performed by Local Sound for their album WWJD released in 2017.
Here is a link to the audio, and below I have transcribed the lyrics.
The word You wrote to me brought me back to life
A living history, Your blood is scarlet in light
Now my world can never be the sameHeaven here now
Love that came down
In You I am found
Heaven here nowNow I look to You, walk the narrow road
Give my life away to be a living stone
Oh, that all the earth would know Your NameHeaven here now
Love that came down
In You I am found
Heaven here nowHeaven open wide, let our worlds collide
Heaven be found here with me now
Heaven open wide, let our worlds collide
Heaven be found here with me nowLike lightning in the sky, Your kingdom on the rise
The thunder of our praise echoing the light
See the sun ablaze, breaking through the night
Look into his face, behold the risen ChristThe enemy will shake as we lift our voices loud
Holy is our God, Heaven here and now
See the lost return, all the earth will bow
Holy is our God, Heaven here and now