Lyrics Page
Steal At Any Price
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Sep 30, 2026 updated
Pictures In the Sky album
Verified editorial review
Song Meaning
Rich Mullins tells two parallel stories — a woman caught in cycles of emptier loves, a boy holding a broken bottle full of unresolved anger — before naming the one pursuing both of them with a deliberately strange title: 'he's a thief in the night.' 1 Thessalonians 5:2's warning that 'the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night' usually describes something to be feared, arriving unannounced and unwelcome; Mullins inverts that image into something wanted instead.
'Where souls are for sale but nobody buys' names the actual market this thief operates in — not stealing what's valued and protected, but claiming what's already being neglected or discounted by everyone else. 'He takes her out of the darkness and into the light' echoes Colossians 1:13's account of being delivered 'out of the power of darkness' into 'the Kingdom of the Son of his love.' The refrain's closing line, 'His love is a steal at any price,' plays both senses of 'steal' at once — a theft, and a bargain too good to pass up — without picking one meaning over the other.
Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team
He sees a frozen shadow
Cold in the neon flash
He sees the ghost of a chance in her eyes
He longs to take her away
To a place where love can last
Without all these memories
Of all the emptier loves in her life
'Cause He knows how bad it can get
And He sees her lose
Though she pays her dues
She still winds up in debt
And the night cracks
Like a whip in her heart
She looks into the light
He takes her out of the darkness
He's a thief in the night
Where souls are for sale but nobody buys
Please believe me when I
When I tell you His love
Is a steal at any price
He sees a broken bottle
There in a young boy's hand
It's full of the anger
That's cut him so deep
He longs to take him in
And show He understands
And give him something that's more than
A promise that no one will keep
'Cause He knows how bad it can hurt
When you try and you try
'Til you don't know why
'Cause you still find that nothing works
And his heart cracks
Like a whip in the night
He takes him out of the darkness
And into the light
And He's a thief in the night
Where souls are for sale but nobody buys
Please believe me when I
When I tell you His love
Is a steal at any price
He's a thief in the night
Where souls are for sale but nobody buys
Please believe me when I
When I tell you His love
Is a steal at any price
He's a thief in the night
Where souls are for sale but nobody buys
Please believe me when I
When I tell you His love
Is a steal at any price
He's a thief in the night