It was the summer of 2003 and I had an incredibly busy season investing in youth at camps and missions adventures. I was teaching our high school students a lot about how Jesus accepted those who weren’t accepted by others. After teaching about two women who Jesus encountered, I started writing a song describing what Jesus would say about them. I imagined Jesus describing them the same way, as having a beauty that was captivating.
The first verse describes the heat of the day when Jesus meets the woman at the well in John 4. He is in Samaria, and Jesus asks a Samaritan woman for a drink from Jacob’s Well. I’m imagining that we often feel like this woman who has come to the well alone in the heat because she is ashamed, gossiped about, and not accepted. While we don’t know all of what brought this woman to where she is in life, we do know that she has had five husbands, and the man she is living with at that time is not her husband.
This is a woman who has been disappointed by broken promises, by being abandoned and feeling lost. In thinking about her situation, I’m imagining her looking into the well and seeing her own flushed, sweaty tear stained face.
Verse 1
The blazing sun beat down around us
Your soul is thirsty, like the ground beneath your feet
Coming to this place, you need a little space
You’ve heard promises before
All those promises walked right out your door
Looking deep into the well, You hope to find yourself
The reflection looking back at you is
Living on the ragged edge, surviving day to day
Hoping no one notices all of your pain
You tell another lie, and you try to get away
Nothing seems to satisfy, life leaves you wanting to die
When we are beaten down repeatedly, living in shame and trying to avoid others, we are in danger of the enemy of our soul coming with his accusations, shame and lies, and often he will try to lead us to believe we would be better off dead. This is the familiar struggle of so many young people we walked with; it is a hopelessness that can lead to the temptation to commit suicide.
Unconditional Acceptance
But Jesus, who encounters this Samaritan woman, sees her so much differently than others, and values her more than she values herself. Jesus sings this chorus to her, as her Creator and as the Light of the world.
Chorus:
I can see, that you have a beauty, That is so captivating
It reflects my light like a million stars at night
When I saw you, I saw right through
All your sin and all your shame, I will take away this pain
I choose you, and I tell you the truth,
My goodness is on parade, with every step you take
Jesus is singing this chorus over the woman at the well, but also over our own hearts as well, because Jesus sees through all our sin and shame. He came to heal us and set us free. The powerful phrase, "I choose you" is what I imagine Jesus saying to us. When Jesus says to the fishermen on the shore: “follow me,” as a Rabbi, he’s really saying, “I choose you … I see that you have what it takes to imitate me and live the way I do". It’s a vote of confidence and a statement of unconditional acceptance.
God’s Goodness on Parade
Jesus finishes with the words, “I tell you the truth”. Some versions say, "Truly, truly, I say this to you". He says this almost 70 times in the gospels. This was a powerful reminder of who is singing these phrases. He continues by explaining, “my goodness is on parade, with every step you take”.
This is one of my favorite lyrics that God has shared with me from Heaven because it’s a vision I had of Moses who wanted to see God’s glory (Exodus 33). Moses is placed in the crevasse of a rock and God passes by and covers Moses' face so that he only sees the back of God passing by. The Lord showed me that it was God’s goodness passing by Moses ‘like a parade.’
I love parades and the excitement of what’s coming around the corner next. The concept of God’s goodness as a parade in the lives of others as WE take each step, in that context, they are experiencing God and His goodness when we walk into their lives.
In verse 1, Jesus reflect on the woman at the well, and in verse 2, Jesus describes the woman caught in adultery while simultaneously describing how so many of us feel as we get caught in a shame storm of our own making. This is based on the account in John, chapter 8. I’m imagining a rainy day, using the imagery of a place “east of Eden” - I'm thinking of a place of toil and shame after Adam and Eve sinned and were suffering under the curse of sin.
Verse 2
Storm clouds billow east of Eden
The morning rain is pooling at your feet
You were carried to this place, With little hope of finding grace
Tear drops splash, a face looks back
Can you make an escape from all of this shame
Looking for some help, to save you from yourself
The reflection looking back at you is
Living on the ragged edge, surviving day to day
Hoping no one notices all of your pain
You tell another lie, and you try to get away
Nothing seems to satisfy, life leaves you wanting to die
Once again, the reflection of the woman is looking back at herself in the rain puddle, in the same way the woman at the well is looking at her reflection in the well water. Their heads are lowered in shame, hoping that no one sees the pain they are carrying. I believe that even though this woman wants to hide in her shame, she wants God to see her.
The God Who Sees Me
There is no satisfaction in this life without Jesus, and we are designed for drinking his living water, for his acceptance and forgiveness. While this woman wants to disappear from shameful glaring of religious leaders who have circled around her, she actually wants to be seen. She wants to be seen by God.
Maybe in the back of her mind she's thinking about Hagar in Genesis 16, who describes God as El Roi, the God who sees me.
And so Jesus, as God in the flesh ... how does He see her? The chorus tells us.
Chorus:
I can see, that you have a beauty, That is so captivating
It reflects my light like a million stars at night
When I saw you, I saw right through
All your sin and all your shame, I will take away this pain
I choose you, I tell you the truth,
My goodness is on parade, with every step you take
There was a Christian high school retreat I was invited to speak at some years ago and I taught about the woman Jesus encounters at the well (John 4) as well as the woman caught in adultery in John 8, and then I played this song and explained that this was how Jesus saw these young people.
There was a powerful time of repentance and prayer at the end of the song. One girl came up to me and said, “I am that woman that Jesus was speaking to.” Jesus was speaking to their hearts and they were hearing His truth. What made it even more satisfying was that I was speaking at Alliance Redwoods, which is the same place where I fully recommitted my life to Jesus in my teenage years!
So I believe that this song is declaring the truth over all of us and it helps us receive how Jesus really sees us. And even if the face reflected in the well, or the pouring rain, or in the mirror, is tear stained, blotchy and broken, Jesus sees through all our brokenness, and he chooses us, and he says our beauty is captivating.
So, allow these words of truth to sink deep into your soul.
When Jesus looks at us, He sees that our beauty is captivating!
To hear the podcast and the complete song, "Captivating" click here.
This is part 3 of the series Music From My Heart. Watch for part 4 next week.
We invite you to join us this week for our Sunday Worship Service in the Dome at 10:00 a.m.
You can also live stream our service on Facebook and YouTube at 10:00 a.m.
