Just In Time

For my money, such as it is, Blossom Dearie gives the best rendition of Just in Time, a simple, yet powerful, song written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Dearie's voice is somewhere between a squeak and velvet, just excellent enough to be professional and unusual enough to be memorable.

The lyrics to Just in Time are a love letter from the one who was lost to the one who found them. The first verse is written in the first person:

"Just in time, I found you just in time. Before you came my time was running low. I was lost, the losing dice were tossed. My bridges all were crossed, nowhere to go. Now you're here, and now I know just where I'm goin', no more doubts or fear, I've found my way. For love came, just in time..."

After a satisfying bass solo, the second verse begins in the 2nd person:

"Just in time. You found me just in time..."

I will not claim that Comden and Green had any intention to write a metaphor for salvation, but as Christians, we tend to see God and his hand everywhere, and this is no exception.

Our conception of God's hand is always stronger after the fact. We cannot always know the path upon which he is pushing us, but we mistake our lives as products of our will while we occupy the moments that come. As we move forward, however, and as we learn and think more, we always see God's fingerprints on what took place. The salvation experience is no different. We are convinced it is all us at the time, but looking back, we see it was all him.

We think we found God "just in time," but we always must understand that he found us just in time.