Whitney Houston's untimely death is a tragedy and an irony. It is tragic that such a talented singer died in her prime. And it is ironic that one who sang so passionately about love died shortly before Valentine's Day.
In celebration of her life, many Denver radio stations are playing her best love songs. Perhaps a look at her songs can give a glimpse of Whitney's thoughts, dreams and even wishes--or at least a glimpse into the many who loved her songs.
Love. That is the theme of her career. Her top seven songs are all about love: how love will wait; how love is unknown; how love is great; how love is emotional; how love is broken.
This common theme has a common element: the emotional basis of American love. She wanted to "help me bring the feeling back again." In another song, she was "unsure if this is true love that I feel." While elsewhere she sang, "tonight is the night, for feeling alright."
Such feelings range from butterflies in her stomach to night-long, hormonal-induced passion.
And yet such a theme is common in humankind. Since God is love, and we are made in the image of God, humans have a capacity of love. Yet sin twisted that capacity into emotionalism and lust.
It is certainly not wrong, and in fact natural, to have emotional passions (read the book in the Bible, Song of Solomon). But love is more than hormones run amok.
Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy or boast. It does not insist on its own way (1 Corinthians 13:4ff.). In fact, love is the fulfillment of the Law of God (Romans 13:8).
The love that Whitney wished for, and many in Denver long for, is a love only found in the life and death of the Son of Love, Jesus Christ. He declared a universal truth that He exemplified in life and death:
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
(Gospel of John 15:13)
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