Yaquina Head Lighthouse, OR
1 John 5:11-12 MSG
God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.
In the immortal words of the sage theologians, The Bangles….
Say my name
Sun shines through the rain
A whole life so lonely
And then you come and ease the pain
I don’t want to lose this feeling, ohh
Close your eyes
Give me your hand
Do you feel my heart beating?
Do you understand?
Do you feel the same?
Am I only dreaming
Or is this burning an eternal flame?
Yes, I’m teasing but what can I say….I’m a product of the 80s. But I really do want to change one word of their Eternal Flame lyrics – SON – instead of sun, then the whole song actually does work as a testimony! Without Jesus, our lives are lonely, sad, and painful. We are searching to fill a Jesus shaped hole in our hearts that only He can fill. Jesus calls us by name, takes us by the hand, and creates within us a new heart! And absolutely YES, I want you to also understand and feel the same because this is no dream, Jesus offers us an eternal life with Him.
According to Song Facts, “Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs wrote this with songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Said Steinberg: ‘Susanna was talking about the Bangles having visited Graceland, and she said there was some type of shrine to Elvis that included some kind of eternal flame. As soon as those words were mentioned, I immediately thought of the synagogue in the town of Palm Springs, California where I grew up. I remember during our Sunday school class they would walk us through the sanctuary. There was one little red light and they told us it was called the eternal flame. When I was a child, I remembered thinking it never burned out, that it was something like the sun or something beyond our capacity to even contemplate. It seemed like a very profound thought when I was a child. I thought, Well that’s a great title for a song, so very quickly I wrote the rest of the lyrics for the song based on that title.’” (https://www.songfacts.com/facts/bangles/eternal-flame)
What stands out to me, is how far God was “working up stream” to plant the seeds of Eternal Flame in the heart of Billy Steinberg. Perhaps Billy doesn’t acknowledge God’s hand in writing the song since he says, “something beyond our capacity to even contemplate.” But truthfully, Jesus’ offer of eternal life isn’t beyond our capacity to contemplate. It’s actually a very simple offer. Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This magnanimous offer is ours to accept or reject. Give me your hand, darling and accept!
