Glimpse – Hillsong Young and Free
You say You love me
But how could You when I ran so far
And still You want me
When I lose sight of where You are
But I only took a moment, with You
A glimpse of life with purpose, and I knew
That living where the light is, oh Lord
It’s exactly where You want me and I never want to leave
So I’m gonna stay in Your presence
Sing of Your love forever
Dance like I did the day when
I’ve caught a glimpse of You
And I’ll get a little bit desperate
To run to the arms of Heaven
All of my life surrendered
I’ve caught a glimpse of You
You are for me
In the moments when I lose my way
You surround me
With Your mercy and Your endless grace
I wanna lift You higher
Forever this heart is Yours
Why would I run and hide
When mercy has covered all
I give my life to You
For all that You are is all I want, God
It’s all I want
There are some songs that I love because of the lyrics, some because of the themes that they draw out; some are just absolutely fun to play and to sing. This one, whilst I still think the themes it draws are great, is just so much fun to sing that it’s been on loop in my car for a little while now!
The song really centres around the theme of catching a glimpse of God and how we respond to it. The song really resonates with me as I remember times when I met with God, times that he has shown up, times where I felt his presence with me; and with his presence, so often, comes a real joy and celebration.
Okay so things I love about this song lyrically;
The verses start with where life so often leads us; we see ourselves lose our way, we lose sight of where God is and what he wants for us. And so often when we’re in those spaces we convince ourselves that God is angry with us, that if we try to find him then he’ll be there with the proverbial stick ready to deal out some righteous punishment. Somehow we forget what may be Jesus’ most famous parable; we forget that the Father ran out to the prodigal son to welcome him home. These verses speak of how God is for us when we run, how he loves us when we hide, how even in these times he surrounds us with love and grace.
I love how well thematically the song rolls together; from a recognition that God still loves us when we stuff up to a commitment to living where the light is. Then the chorus builds upon that with the imagery turning to us running towards Heaven instead of away; the bridge even asking questions like “why would I run and hide when mercy has covered all?”
But really what I love most is how great the chorus is. It’s a massive lift, the pitch of the chorus is really high which naturally means if you’re going to sing it you actually need to sing it loudly or you can’t reach the notes. I find myself then getting drawn into the song, it becomes much more a declaration than me simply singing along with the words. Hillsong Young and Free do this really well with quite a few of their songs and it’s a really effective strategy (think Alive, This is Living Now, even Where You Are [All fantastic songs as well by the way!]).
I’m quite excited by the idea of playing it in church, obviously we’ll need to find a way to put our flavour into without having a full band but for me the idea that God loves us even when we run away is really important and worth singing about.
As always I do hope this song is a blessing to you,
Much love
Disney