Marti wanted me to share this song with you today. It’s from one of the most prolific and least known writers of early Jesus Music, Terry Scott Taylor (“Shotgun Angel,” “Fall in Your Father’s Arms” from Daniel Amos, his first group). Lines like “Hide the beer the pastor’s here” in their early songs didn’t exactly endear these guys to the established church. Terry has always been somewhat of a renegade who you could never fit within the confines of the mainstream. He writes what he has to write; it doesn’t matter whether it fits somewhere or not. He’s always been a little like Mark Heard — too dirty for the saints and too clean for the sinners.

Somehow, Terry has managed to eek out a career in that no-man’s-land created by the saints/sinner dilemma. A certain number of truth-seeking saints and sinners have found artists like him and remained loyal. This is where the internet has contributed to the arts — it has created a platform for some of the best to gather a following.

This is actually a picture of the way life is for all of us. If one fits comfortably into the mainstream they are probably not telling the whole truth about themself, and if one is too fully conformed to the world, they probably are not telling anybody about Jesus. The middle road is a challenge. Fortunately there are people like Terry helping us live there. As well as people on the secular side with faith enough to shine through like Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Bob Dylan and U2, to name just a few.

So I ask you to stop a moment and enjoy this song. Click on the title to link to a YouTube recording of it. Once you get it playing, come back to the lyrics so you can follow along. Sometimes when you are new to a song, you spend so much effort trying to understand the words that you miss the beauty of how it all fits together. Following the words will help you deepen the experience.

The Afternoon

by Terry Scott Taylor

How she loved the dawn’s golden colors

Dressed on the tree-arched vestibule

Alone, she’d go out dancing

‘Cross the quilt of morning dew

Had a soul for rising early

And a heart for leaving soon

Oh, how she loved the morning

So God took her in the afternoon

[Verse 2]

Her prayers spilled over earth and water

Kissed the snow fields and climbed the hills

Cracked the mountains of Virginia

Touched the hem of Jesus’ will

Yes, sweet daybreak was a lover

But he could not heal her wound

Oh, how she loved the morning

So God took her in the afternoon

[Bridge]

Today the wind’s a little colder

The sun drifts ‘cross a pallid sky

And the land is full of shadows

Cast by dark clouds passing by

[Verse 3]

In my dreams, I see her laughing

In the mist, she’s still at play

So each morning, I go looking

For the child who could not stay

Now she fills the fallow green fields

With a memory-laced perfume

Oh, how she loved the morning

So God took her in the afternoon

Oh, how she loved the morning

So God took her in the afternoon

I will have a smile on my face all day today just knowing the some of you will be spending a few moments with this song.

(We’d like to dedicate this song to the memory of Patti Del Monte, long time member of the Catch community who passed away over the weekend, and to her husband, Tom.)