A new type of love song

When I was younger, I loved broadway musicals more than anything. The first show I ever saw was in 7th grade and it was Miss Saigon. I just fell in love with the way you could mix music, which was big in my life, with a story about true love, faithfulness, and sometimes a teary-eyed sad ending. In these shows, my favorite parts would always be the big love song between the two lead characters where they declared their love for each other and you knew that they would always be together (All I ask of you from Phantom and Too Much In Love To Care from Sunset Boulevard come to mind as good examples of these). There was just so much emotion and love expressed in the words, and to boot they were set to a great melody that enhanced the experience and made you feel all tingly inside. In a way,  you got to live vicariously through the characters and experience love and emotions my teenage self only dreamed of. In a way, though, I always felt I could never be a part of that love song, one, because I can't sing very well, and two because I was never sure that I could have that kind of love for anyone else, and furthermore that they could ever love me in that way. But listening to these songs and swooning with emotion gave me an outlet of beauty and a place where I could pretend that I was loved just as these characters loved each other.

In the past few  years, I've seen God change that desire for love inside my heart. He has shown me that any kind of human love is a pointer to His perfect unfailing love. Any grace and mercy in love between two people is a picture of the infinite mercies that He shows us every morning, not because we deserve it, but because He chooses to have grace on us. Even more so, God has also changed my view of what a love song is. I used to think the perfect love song was between two people, but now I see that it is between a human and their God. Usually, in these musicals, something happens where they cannot be together, albeit a misunderstanding or some catastrophic event. But God promises that nothing can separate us from His perfect love.

I never thought I could ever sing a love song like those in my favorite broadway musicals, but God showed me that I can be a part of this magnificent love duet, not because I am a good singer (indeed, I'm glad that I'll never have to sing a solo in public), but because I am a partaker in God's love and grace. Christ saw me as the foremost of sinners, yet He chose to have mercy on me! Also, He knew that I could never love Him on my own, so He gathered me to Him and opened my eyes and brought me to sorrow over my sins. What greater example of love could there be? He gives us these wonderful songs to sing to Him that are richer and more beautiful than any love ballad between two people because they point to God's perfect love. He points our eyes heaven-ward, from the human love relationships to our love relationship with Him. God has so graciously blessed us with songs that can so powerfully express how great God is and how wonderful His love is to us; this is richer and more beautiful than any love story could be because it is THE love story of all time.

There are a lot of good songs out there. This one is the one that has always reminded me of His infinite glory and love towards us.

How Deep
You were broken that I might be healed
You were cast off that I might draw near
You were thirsty that I might come drink
Cried out in anguish that I might sing

How deep is Your love
How high and how wide is Your mercy
How deep is Your grace
Our hearts overflow with praise to You

You knew darkness that I might know light
Wept great tears that mine might be dried
Stripped of glory that I might be clothed
Crushed by Your Father to call me Your own

Based on The Valley of Vision prayer “Love Lustres at Calvary”
Words and Music by Stephen Altrogge