Held

Last week I had the pleasure of watching Natalie Grant sing this song on television, and then hearing friend sing it in church. It's a strongly sentimental song, and I think it contains some good advice. If not, it's a song that opens peoples' hearts, and allows them to receive comfort from the Lord.

It goes like this.

Two months is too little;
They let him go
They had no
Sudden healing.
To think that Providence
Would take a child
From his mother while she prayed
Is appalling.
Who told us we'd be rescued?
What has changed and
Why should we be saved
From nightmares?
--- I'm not sure what she means by "what has changed." The tone of the song has changed abruptly and it's a little confusing. Does she mean that thinking that Providence would take an infant from his praying mother is appalling is a change? But anyway, it's a good question that she asks: why should we be saved from nightmares?

We're asking why this happened
To those of us who have died to live
It's unfair.

--- Of course we ask why this happened. We want things to make sense. There's a question of enjambment here - is it, "we're asking why this happened to those of us," or, "to those of us who have died live it's unfair"? After this ambibuity comes the chorus:

This is what it means
To be held
How it feels
When the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is
To be loved
And to know
That the promise was when everything fell we'd be held.

--- I know that I am held all the time by the Father, not just when everything else falls - in fact, to some extent, it's all already fallen - I mean, who do I really have but God? So I wonder what the song means when it says "this is what it means." What does it mean to be held? The best sense I can make of it is that it's about resting in God's protection and sovereignty when everything else falls apart. But that's not an answer to the mistaken notion that we'd be rescued and spared from nightmares, which belief can cause a person to become bitter against the Lord.

Speaking of bitterness, the song talks about it. This is my faavorite part:

This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it
Let the hatred numb
Our sorrow.

The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and
Tomorrow.

--- This part makes sense to me impressionistically; it's pretty deep and analytical, too. That I would want to focus on the hatred so I wouldn't hurt so much is interesting; I think hatred functions as another form of self-hurt. My hurting can not give any grief or in any way affect the original cause of my hurt, so hurting for hurting's sake only causes more personal hurt. That's why I like the next line - the wise hand opens - slowly - to possible blessings in the future.

I hope this song and these notes bless someone. Good things can happen when you really think about the words of songs.

KMM