16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ~ John 3:16
As a child, I remember being in Tuesday Chapel morning service at school (I went to a Christian School). I remember I heard the chords to the worship song, How He Loves. I immediately got excited because I loved that song. Then they sang the words “Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss” instead of “Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss.” I wasn’t just annoyed that the lyrics were different; I didn’t understand why.
That was over a decade ago, and the changing of those lyrics still bothers me. I heard Crowder, the singer who changed the lyrics, say that it was because he wanted to sing it at his church but couldn’t because of that line. They claimed it was inappropriate for church. That it wasn’t a line to be sung in church. So, eventually, the line was changed by Crowder to “unforeseen kiss.”
Many people believe this is a much better and more appropriate description of Heaven meeting Earth, but I would have to disagree.
Unforeseen means: not anticipated or expected: not foreseen: UNEXPECTED
Is that an accurate description of Christ coming to Earth? Is that an accurate description of heaven meeting Earth? An unanticipated, unexpected kiss? No. It’s not. From creation, God had the coming of Christ, and His millennial reign throughout that story. Prophet after prophet was given the revelation of the coming Messiah and the giving of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t unforeseen. It wasn’t a sweet, innocent kiss. It was a sloppy, wet kiss.
God became man to redeem those who would nail Him to a tree and mock Him as He bled and suffered. Then, not only was all of the sin of the world placed on Him, but He Himself became sin in order to kill sin in His death. There is nothing unforeseen or innocent about Heaven meeting Earth. It was messy and emotional, just like a sloppy, wet kiss.
Why do we have to clean up God’s affection for us and put on this false representation of piety in order to worship? The Scripture isn’t an easy read. It’s not a book of innocent things, but it describes in detail what love looks like and what adultery against the one who loves you looks like. We miss the very essence of what God has done for us when we water down the Bible and the retelling of that Bible.
Dear LORD, please help me to not allow false piety and false religiosity to keep me from seeing You and Your sacrifice for what it is. Teach me to focus only on You during my time of worship and not allow my fear of what others might think to consume me and my thoughts. Give me confidence in You and who I am in You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.
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