Daily Word of Grace # 87 (July 15, 2020)
One of the most memorable songs of the 1980’s is “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel (from his 1986 album So). In the 1989 film Say Anything “In Your Eyes” is playing on the boom box Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) is holding above his head outside the window of the love of his life, Diane Court (Ione Skye), in his effort to win her back. In this song Peter Gabriel articulates the longing all of us have to look into the eyes of someone who loves us as we are: “Love, I get so lost sometimes. Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart. When I want to run away I drive off in my car, but whichever way I go I come back to the place you are. All my instincts, they return and the grand façade so soon will burn. Without a noise, without my pride I reach out from the inside. In your eyes the light the heat, in your eyes I am complete, in your eyes I see the doorway to a thousand churches, in your eyes the resolution of all the fruitless searches.” This song is soaked with the gospel. Scripture reminds us that each one of us gets lost sometimes (Isaiah 53:6) and that each of us needs God to fill the emptiness in our heart in the midst of our quickly passing days—“O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). Each of us longs to reach out without our pride, without the facades we try to maintain for others, and see the “resolution of all the fruitless searches.” And that is where the gospel meets us in Jesus Christ, who is with us on every road we’re on (Isaiah 30:21), who seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10), who gave his life to win us back (1 Peter 1:18-19), and who sees through all our pride and facades into our heart. And scripture assures us that in heaven we will see “the resolution of all the fruitless searches” in the eyes of the One who has always loved us as we are and who will personally wipe the tears from our eyes (Revelation 21:4).
Love and Prayers,
Dave