Not Long Ago

Ray Boltz opens by describing someone else's decline rather than his own — "there was a light in your eyes," he remembers, before asking directly: "can you tell me what happened? Did your heart slowly grow cold?" The questions aren't rhetorical; they're aimed at a real person who used to love God and has drifted.

Boltz doesn't pretend the distance is permanent. "The journey begins the moment you pray," he sings, comparing the listener to "a prodigal son" whose way back is as simple as turning around. The second half of the song shifts the comparison to God himself, "not long ago" giving up his own Son, suffering "to save us" at an even higher cost than anything the listener has lost.

Jesus tells that exact story in Luke 15:11-24, a son who wastes everything and comes home to a father already watching for him, running to meet him while he's still far off. Boltz's closing image — God putting "His arms around you" — is Luke's parable set to a chorus, written for anyone who thinks too much time has passed to come back.