If you’ve read some of my other stories, you know that I rarely (almost never) sit down and say, “Today, I will write a song.” The song “In Your Eyes” is an exception. My sister commented that she thought it would be great if I wrote an original song for the wedding she hoped she would soon be planning. I was still struggling with the idea that I was writing faith-based songs. A love song?! That was a whole new territory I wasn’t sure I wanted to delve into.
Then I got the “brilliant” idea to write a song for my husband. The year was 2001. We were living in Grand Rapids, Michigan and he was working for UPS at the time. A promotion took him to Columbus, Ohio, for a couple weeks of training. He got to come home the weekend between but he was in Columbus Monday through Friday for two consecutive weeks. This trip just happened to occur right around Valentine’s Day so I decided the song would be his gift.
Once it was written, I realized I had inadvertently fulfilled my sister’s request with one condition – it was really “Jim’s song” so he had to say yes. I knew he would – he and I met when said sister was only 8 years old so he really thinks of her more as a sister than a sister-in-law – but I wanted him to know that the song was intended originally for him and I wouldn’t be tossing it out to brides on a whim.
It’s first audience was just him, in the front room of our home. That might have been one of the most nerve-wracking performances of my life! But thankfully he loved the song and two years later, when my baby sister got married, I shared that song as a part of their wedding. It’s been performed a couple of other times since then for special couples. But it will always be “his song”.
“In your eyes there is joy and there is laughter
A hope for happily ever after
And love’s unending song.”
Song of Solomon 8:6
Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy[a] unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.[b]
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one’s house for love,
it[c] would be utterly scorned.
Hello My Lovelies! 