God’s a sloppy kisser

I recently attended a worship service where John Mark McMillan’s “How He Loves” was performed. This song has been around for a couple years, is a favorite to many, and even has a smidgen of controversy attached to it. As I sang along, we came to the line I had heard had been “edited for Sunday.”

Yup.

“So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss…”

… had been replaced with

“So heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss.”

There’s a powerful story behind the song that John M. shares on his blog, along with his thoughts on the whole sloppy thing, his conversations with David Crowder concerning the lyric change, and his frustrations with the whole thing.

That got me thinking… why couldn’t the generally accepted version be the “sloppy” one? Why is there even a problem?

As I thought this through during one of my quiet times, I was reminded of my dad during his last few years. Not one to normally show a lot of affection, I remember when he started to kiss us when we parted. Just a peck on the lips, and I remember being taken aback the first few times. On the lips? I was a grown man. You don’t do that! After a while, I realized he was expressing his love for me, and he wasn’t embarrassed to show it, didn’t care what others thought. His love was “messy,” and it was genuine. I miss those kisses.

Another story of a father unashamed to show love to his children can be found in Luke 15 in the parable of the prodigal son. In Middle Eastern culture, it was unheard of for a father to run to his son, but this one didn’t care… didn’t care what his family, servants, neighbors, etc. thought. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20 MSG) There was nothing proper, nothing formal about that reunion – just a father’s love, lavished on his returning son.

“And I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me.”

I think part of the problem may lie in not truly grasping how great His affections are for us, a love that gave His Son to take our place on the cross, that we could be reunited with Him. I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly picture God greeting us with a Christian side-hug, or a double-pat man hug. No, I imagine it’ll be something a bit more than that, might even be a bit “sloppy.”

God’s love for us is embarrassing only until we accept it.

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