Amy Winehouse was one of the world’s great jazz-pop singers. In 2008, she reprised a song recorded by more than 50 performers, including such greats as Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Etta James, Roberta Flack, and Barbara Streisand. Written by George and Ira Gershwin in 1926, the song “Someone to Watch Over Me,” expresses our longing for that one special person who will always be there for us, who will always have our best interests at heart.
Maybe you remember the lyrics:
I'm a little lamb who's lost in a wood
I know I could always be good
To one who'll watch over me.
Three years after recording the song, Winehouse was gone, never having found the love and protection she sang about. At the age of twenty-seven, after years of abusing herself with drugs and alcohol, she succumbed to alcohol poisoning.
But why bring up another sad story of a great talent self-destructing? Simply to point out that in the end God is the only one who can satisfy the yearnings of a thousand love songs. His passionate love and his watchful care is the only thing strong enough to straighten us out and set us on the right track.
Indeed God is jealous when it comes to loving us. He won’t settle for half our hearts. With him, it’s everything or nothing.
As we reflect on a love so great and a story so tragic, let us turn to God, admitting that we’re not so different from the little lambs Amy Winehouse sang about, the ones who are lost in a wood but who know they can always be good to One who’ll watch over them.
