There's Someone Who's Loved You Forever
You may not know it, but you can still show it
I can see angels around you
They shimmer like mirrors in summer
There's someone who's loved you forever
But you don't know it
You might feel it and just not show it
These lyrics come from the song “Among Angels” by Kate Bush, from her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow. It’s a deeply moving, spiritual song from what is clearly Bush’s most contemplative album. She may be best known for her song “Running Up That Hill” (given new life by the Netflix Series Stranger Things), but this song reveals the breadth to her mystical depth.
I don’t know if Kate Bush can really see angels or if she’s just an amazing songwriter, and I don’t know if that really matters. I do believe we are all surrounded by angels who shimmer like sunlight in a mirror, and that we have all been loved forever, and most of us simply don’t realize it. But we can realize it, and that’s beautiful.
So… can we see angels? Or must we simply rely on our imagination to trust what we believe is there, but beyond the capacity of human senses to discern?
It may be a fair question, but I think it’s the wrong question, at least from the perspective of the contemplative path. What really matters is not whether or not angels are “really” there, or whether or not it is possible to perceive them in any way.
What matters is this: can you live your life as if you trusted, beyond any doubt, that “there’s someone who’s loved you forever”?
As Kate points out, we don’t “know” this — it’s not something we can see with our eyes or touch with our fingers. Angels, like God, require a leap of faith. So maybe the first question to ask is, are you willing to take the leap?
Are you willing to trust that this universe, after all is said and done, is a safe place? Are you willing to calibrate your life toward daring to live as if this were manifestly true?
How we answer that question makes all the difference.
To be a contemplative, to embrace the mystical journey, is to say yes to this possibility: the possibility that there’s someone who has loved you forever — whether you consciously know it or not. And if we believe that is possible, then it is possible for us to be icons of that love, that we can, in the words of Thomas Merton, “walk around shining like the sun.”
Because whether the shimmering that other people see comes form an immaterial angel, or just from you and me, ultimately makes no difference. That shimmering light, the light of wisdom and compassion, originates in the source of all light and love. And when we choose to share that with others, we make this world just a tiny little bit better.
And that, my friends, is a miracle.