If you were a songmaker from a galaxy far away, and decided to make a comprehensive study of popular songs of the planet Earth, the first thing you might notice is that earthlings spend a lot of time singing about lost love, in its many forms—the love that will never be, the love that got away, that love that was betrayed, the love that was not returned. Why does unrequited love seem to be our favorite theme song? I've spent a good bit of time right here in our own galaxy with my feet propped up on my songmaker's workbench and a cup of coffee growing cold, pondering this question.
The simple, obvious answer is that we want love, and we start out thinking that if we just do all the right things that it will eventually come our way in the natural course of events. But love, like truth and beauty, is not as easy to get ahold of as it looks. It's complicated and elusive.
Now, this is a perfectly good explanation for why so much of human culture has been devoted to singing about yearning and heartbreak and desire, not to mention anger and jealousy and frustration. Because yes, we have a great need to express the powerful range of emotions that our longing hearts get tangled up in, to share our experience, to commiserate. And I don't mean to take anything away from it when I say that it's not the full answer. I think there's another answer buried down deep, down at the very root of our humanness.
For whatever reason and in whatever way, we are separated from God. We are far from home and we long with all our hearts to return. So we sing our longing to anyone who will listen.
Draw Us Closer
words and music © Garrison Doles
from his CD Draw Us Closer
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
We walk upon this world
So beautiful and terrifying
Clinging to this sweet, sweet life
Living in this dying
We are gathered at this stone
On this day, on this day
Let the gates of heaven be open
The walls of heaven fall away
O be no more divided
From the longing of our hearts
Let this world lie gently in your arms
In your arms
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
We journey through this life
Mysterious and unforgiving
We are bound to this hard, hard earth
Dying in this living
Shed our tears upon this stone
On this day, on this day
Let the gates of heaven be open
The walls of heaven fall away
O be no more divided
From the longing of our hearts
Let this world lie gently in your arms
In your arms
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
Draw us closer, closer, closer to You
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