Jon Kahn is a singer/songwriter whose star is on the rise. Correlation is not causation, but it’s notable that his rising interest in faith is coincident with his success as an artist.
Kahn was not raised in a religious home. As a boy he had profound questions about his place in the universe, questions which followed him into manhood. He tells about a conversation about life with another songwriter who said, “You know, you talk like a Christian. You have a seeker’s heart.” That intensified his questions and multiplied the conversations. At one point a friend said, “I’ve never seen God chase anybody like He’s chasing you. He’s got his fingerprints all over you.”
“Fingerprints” became the name of a song Kahn wrote about his faith journey. It speaks to the realities of life and the steadying presence of God. “When it gets dark and it’s so hard to breathe, You’ll be right there and I know won’t leave. Even in the darkness I can see You got Your fingerprints on me.” The lyrics acknowledge the evidence of God’s presence and voice in Kahn’s life.
If you look, you’ll see God’s presence and voice in your life as well. Why? Because God is patient, “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). What does it look like? See the night sky. “The heavens are telling of the glory of God” (Psa. 19:1). See “the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9). See the cross about which Jesus said, “If I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32). Hear what Paul said to the philosophers in Athens, Greece: God gives you life and breath. He determines your appointed time and place so that you would seek Him, “though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17).
Every person’s life bears evidence of God’s fingerprints. You are made in His image. He loves you when you wander; He embraces you when you come to Him. He grasps for you in your pleasure and pain, in the beauty of creation and the horror of disaster. This is your reality. This is your hope.
After Kahn wrote the song, his mother died, and his father suffered serious injury. Then came the Palisades fire which destroyed his California home. When pressed about how all this affects his faith journey, he said, “I never lost faith and I always had a peace that things were going to work out. I thought, what better time to release a song like this than in the middle of a storm.”
What about you? Have you noticed God’s fingerprints on your life? Kahn’s lyrics nudge you along: “If my eyes were really open, I would’ve found the clues…”