Maybe it bothers me so much because I know the story behind the original writing of that song, the anointing over it. And I know the way it has profoundly affected my own life.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the song I'm referring to is "How He Loves" (if you don't know the story behind the song, I beg you to take a time-out and watch the video below. Right now. I promise it will be worth your while).
I am aware that there has already been some debate over David Crowder's change in the lyrics from "sloppy, wet kiss" to "unforeseen kiss". But I feel this deep need to add to the conversation, because every time I think about how much the original lyrics mean to me, I can literally feel fiery passion rising up in my spirit.
You wouldn't think that changing two little words would make such a difference. What's the big deal? For me, it's the distance that the word "unforeseen" creates. The intellectualness. The religiosity. It takes a picture of incredible, raw intimacy and reduces it to an abstract concept.
If you had been separated from your loved one for a very long time, I'm not exactly sure what sort of words would be used to describe the affections you display upon your reunion, but I can promise you that unforeseen would not be one of them. Six months apart from your lover. A year. Five years. When you saw each other again, those kisses would not be unforeseen. They would be excited, passionate--and yes, perhaps even sloppy and wet.
Because that's the way God's love is. It can't be contained in the pretty little box of our comprehension. God's love is eager, messy. It gets all over you. This love is powerful, radical, disconcerting. It looks like God committing the first act of bloodshed to clothe His fallen creation. It looks like prophet after prophet in tatters, ridiculed as they plead for people to hear the voice of the Lord. It looks like the God of the universe containing Himself inside a fragile body so He can look us in the eye and say I understand. It looks like flesh stripped apart by a whip of glass and bones, strung up on wooden beams dripping blood.
His love was never unforeseen. It was promised. And that promise was fulfilled as the veil was torn in two, as Holy Spirit fire consumed hearts and changed the course of history forever. That promise was fulfilled when you called on the name of Jesus, and in that instant, heaven met earth like a sloppy, wet kiss, and the angels rejoiced as the Spirit of God smothered you in love, so happy to be reunited with His beloved child.
If that image offends you, if receiving a sloppy, wet kiss from God makes you uncomfortable, please read Song of Songs, read Hosea. I will be the first to admit that the revelation of the intimacy of God's love is one that took me a long time to come to terms with, and I am still learning. But even just beginning to grasp what it truly means to fall in love with God is powerful beyond any explanation I can give.
"'I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her...There she will sing as in the days of her youth...In that day,' declares the LORD, 'you will call me "my husband"; you will no longer call me "my master."'" -Hosea 2:14-16
wow this moved me
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