There it was again! Whenever we sang for the seniors we would allow requests, and almost every single time, they would request The Chrystal Chandelier! I didn’t object to doing a few classic love songs together with some hymns and some fun songs, even some I had written myself, but I hated the “you-done-me-wrong” type of love song, and this was definitely one of those.

Here’s how it goes

Chorus:  Oh, the crystal chandeliers light up the paintings on your walls
The marble statuettes are standing stately in the hall
But will the timely crowd that has you laughing loud
Help you dry your tears
When the new wears off of your crystal chandeliers?

I never did fit in too well with the folks you knew
And it’s plain to see that the like’s of me, don’t fit with you
So you traded me for the gaiety of well to do
And you turned away from the love I offered you

I see your picture in the news most every day
You’re the chosen girl of the social world, so the stories say
But a paper smile only lasts a while, then it fades away
And the love we knew will come home to you someday

I sung the song with Hugh because we were asked, but I never really wanted to. And then one day I realized something. I was mulling over the words as I sang them to the room full of seniors. Many of them were looking for some little bit of connection to the carefree life of their past, a time when they could dance the night away to those familiar tunes. And then it dawned on me.

The Crystal Chandelier was more than just a “you-done-me-wrong” song. To many of these people it was just a favorite dance tune, but to me, it became something more. I began to see it as a true allegory. It was a clear picture of Jesus and a large portion of the modern church world.

Jesus loves His church, even as He watches her being allured by a new love. It is a god that offers so much more in the way of temporal wealth and prosperity and popularity. It is not the God of the Bible, not the one who offered His love at the cost of His life. It is a new god, a god that says “believe in yourself,” not the One that says “believe in Me and Me alone.”

I doubt if any of the pleasure seekers dancing to the sad tale of the Crystal Chandelier were aware of the obvious message beyond the common theme, or that they could listen to the words as coming from God Himself. Some of them had learned about Jesus in Sunday school. They had loved Him then. They had wanted to follow Him. But the allure of the fifties and sixties was exciting to the physical senses. It drew them. Many of them left behind the God they had known as a child, and traded Him in for the kind of life the world had to offer them.

Now in this modern era the allure is changed slightly, but it is the same one doing the alluring. It is still the promise of wealth and prosperity, of popularity and position. And it is actually coming in through the churches. We as a church have traded in the kind of love that is all about giving ones all to the other, whether it means dying a horrendous death on a cross, or suffering major persecution and being ridiculed for the One we love, and we have embraced a relationship with a god that is all about immediate gratification. The god we have chosen is one who will give us everything we lust after, and expects nothing in return, not even our faithfulness.

The Savior is sad, as He waits for the paper smile to fade, and His church to remember her first love. His arms are open. Thus He waits.

All this I see in a secular song probably written without a whole lot of spiritual thought. I wonder how many gospel songs written today reach the heart in that powerful a way. I don’t recommend that you start singing all the old secular songs, especially not the you-done-me-wrong type. Chances are they will do more harm than good.

But I would love to hear if any of you can think of some of the oldies you knew that had a good dose of Biblical truth within the song. Please leave me a note in the comments. And if you write songs, I would love to hear one you have written that powerfully brings out a Biblical truth.