Hello World

Traffic crawls, cell phone calls
Talk radio screams at me.
Through my tinted window I see
A little girl, rust red minivan.
She's got chocolate on her face
Got little hands, and she waves at me.

Yeah, she smiles at me.

Hello, world.

How've you been?

Good to see you, my old friend.

Sometimes I feel cold as steel.

Broken like I'm never gonna heal.

I see a light, a little hope.

In a little girl.

Hello, world.
Every day I drive by

A little white church.
It's got these little white crosses
Like angels in the yard.
Maybe I should stop on in,
Say a prayer,
Maybe talk to God

Like He is there.

Oh, I know He's there.

Yeah, I know He's there.

Hello, world.

How've you been?

Good to see you, my old friend.

Sometimes I feel as cold as steel.

And broken like I'm never going to heal.

I see a light,

A little grace, a little faith unfurled.

Hello, world.

Sometimes I forget what living's for

And I heave my life through my front door.

And I'll be there.

Oh, I'm home again.

I see my wife, little boy, little girl

Hello, world.

Hello, world.

All the empty disappears.

I remember why I'm here.

Just surrender and believe.

I fall down on my knees.

Oh, hello world.

Hello, world.

Hello, world.

--"Hello World" performed by Lady Antebellum

The words of this song are beautiful, and the music that accompanies them tells the story even better than the lyrics do.  The entire song sounds like worship... I don't really know how to define that, but it does.  Listening to the album today, the song caught my attention simply with its sound.  The strokes of the piano keys, the soft building base notes swelling underneath, a high and haunting piano melody breaking through just like the hope breaking through in the lyrics, drums building, strings joining and orchestration soaring, piano breaking freer and freer like the heart emerging, steel softening...

One of the things that makes me believe in God... (I've been trying to work out and articulate my reasons, and, while I'd like to have more than "feelings" to support my rationale, I'll go with only my emotion and my smattering of academic dabbling for now.)  ...One of the things that makes me believe in God is the ability of humans to reach each other with words, with music, with art, with dance.  What is it inside us that needs to create, that is moved by the creations of others?  Can this be a bit of God?  A glimpse of a Creator who glories in creation?  Is it blasphemy to say that my recent encounter with this song by a secular country music group that also sings about one night stands and heartbreak felt to me like an encounter with God?  Or are instances when we are moved by interactions with other humans-- like the moment with the little girl in the song-- truly glimpses of the divine in the form of connection between one creation and another.  Could such moments sear as they do because they are a communion of creations of the same artist?   Much has been written and sung about the oneness of humanity, about the common bonds that transcend cultural differences, and about a brotherhood that should exist. I love these ideals in the earthly realm, and I realize I hold to them from a spiritual standpoint as well.  What connects us if there is nothing greater than man?  What is a laugh or a tear?  What can explain the feelings they express that all nations can understand if there is not something greater than the individual and the groups and governments he creates?  There must be something more, and I call it God.

Listening to this song, opening my eyes a little wider to see the world and say "hello" to it in a way that I haven't in a while, I feel the meaning of the words reverberating through me-- I know He's there.  I know He's there.

As the building rejoicing of the music pulses through me, I wonder what this can be besides worship.  Why does humanity have the impulse to create beauty if not created by something beautiful, why if not for worship?  


Perhaps even our most irreligious productions come from the same place that produces praise.  Maybe even our darkest desires originate from the same core that yearns for God.  It seems to me now that it could not be possible for us to have art or appreciation for it in any way if not for a little bit of divinity, a little breath of God that must exist inside of all of us.

Note: You can and should go listen to the song on Lady Antebellum's website.  Just click the link and then the play button beside the song "Hello World."