“And the tears come streaming down your face/
When you lose something you can’t replace/
When you love someone, but it goes to waste/
Could it be worse?/
Lights will guide you home/
And ignite your bones/
And I will try to fix you/”
The background story of the song goes like this:
“Chris Martin wrote this song for Gwyneth Paltrow after her father passed away. She came home from the hospital, drenched and covered in tears. Chris Martin started crying and he kept asking her ‘What can I do for you? Tell me how can I help?’ She looked up at him and said ‘Just hold me cause you’re the only thing that can fix me right now.’”
The most wonderful songs, stories, and films are often narratives that move the hearts and, at the same time, portray a harsh reality that needs ‘fixing’. These narratives often draw out man’s deepest yearnings with tales about eternal love that is without parting; tales about man’s escape from death, time, and aging; tales of good absolutely triumphing over evil and with victory snatched away from the jaws of defeat; and tales about sacrificial heroism that brings life out of a certain death.
These tales reflect man’s deepest yearnings for things that are ought to be in reality, but in reality are not ought to be — love is never without parting and we can lose the ones we love to death; no man lives forever as all man are bounded by time; and defeats can happen more often than they ought to and victories can never come.
As harsh as these realities are, all man know in their heart of hearts that realities should not be as how they are — man should never lose the ones they love to death, man should not be bounded by time and age, man should always be victorious in all his pursuits — This is how life ought to be in reality even though it is not what it is in reality.
Then came the Gospel narratives. A Story of all stories that satisfy all that the heart yearns for in a narrative and in reality — victory over evil, love that conquers death, heroic self-sacrifice, love that never fails; and when everything seems at its darkest, life came out of death and triumph came out of defeat.
However, the Gospel is not just another story that points to the underlying yearning all man have; Jesus, the centre Protagonist of the Gospel, is the underlying yearning that all the other narratives point. The death and resurrection of the Savior had broken that concrete slab that separates the ideal of ‘how life ought to be’ and the reality of ‘how life as it is.’
This is a Story that tells of how when ‘tears are streaming down your face’ you can be comforted, and those precious tears are treasured and will be wiped away. This is also the same Story that tells how a life lost for His sake can be found, and a love given is never a love wasted.
Yes, ‘Light will guide you home. And ignite your bones.’ In His love, all is fixed. May His Story be your reality in this Christmas season.
