Taylor Swift – invisible string and the will of God ✨💖

Friday brings the beginning of the weekend, a hint of freedom, and a new Gospel According to post. This week we’re fangirling over Taylor Swift’s song “invisible string” from her “Folklore” album. This song is so sweet and beautiful on its own, but just wait until we look at it through the lens of the Gospel 😉 Enjoy!

Fandom: “invisible string” by Taylor Swift

Verses: Romans 8:28, Genesis 50:20, Deuteronomy 8:2-3, Romans 5:3-5, 2 Corinthians 4:15, Hebrews 12:6-11, 1 Peter 1:7-8, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Romans 9:11, 23, Galatians 1:19, Ephesians 1:9-10, Ephesians 3:11, 1 Peter 5:10

Nugget: God is always there for us. Even when we can’t see it, He is working all things together for our good, refining and shaping us as His beloved children.

The Horizontal View: True love, after all this time

As per usual, let’s begin by discussing the meaning of this song from a horizontal, or human-to-human, perspective. Say what you like about T-Swizzle, she is an amazing lyrical storyteller, and this song is no different. Over a backdrop of folksy acoustic guitar, Taylor takes us from her childhood dreams of meeting a beautiful stranger in a park, all the way to showing her true love around that very same park, and everything that happened in between.

Taylor’s sweet romantic songs are the best ✨ Here’s another one that I love!

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The Vertical View: God’s golden thread

Now that we’ve sufficiently fangirled over the human-to-human side of “invisible string” (as if that were possible lol), let’s consider it from a vertical, or God-to-human, perspective. We’ll start with one main idea, then add some details that go along with it.

Isn’t it just so pretty to think, all along there was some invisible string tying you to me….

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28 ESV

This verse is saying almost the exact same thing as Taylor Swift’s lyrics: for those who love God, aka believers, a metaphorical string connects every event in our lives, representing God working behind the scenes for His glory and our ultimate, highest good. This is the lens through which we will look at the rest of this song, and Taylor’s story of true love.

Here’s a post with some amazing revelation about the meaning of “highest good” in Jeremiah 29:11. Come and see!

Time, curious time, gave me no compasses, gave me no signs. Were there clues I didn’t see?

In this line Taylor speaks of the hidden signs that led to her meeting/getting together with her true love. She wonders throughout the song at the unpredictable events that led her full-circle to the same park she sat in as a young girl. In the same way, we often look back on our lives as believers and realize how events that didn’t make sense to us at the time were actually a step to our growth or deepening our trust, love, and reliance on God (see what I mean by this in this post : ).

For me, this means realizing that the 15+ years I spent studying and practicing to become a dancer or dance teacher weren’t pointless, even though that isn’t my current career path. Instead, all those years of dancing gave me a unique way of worshipping God that inspires others to greater freedom in Him.

Time, mystical time, cuttin’ me open, then healin’ me fine…

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Genesis 50:20 ESV

There are many reasons for difficult things that happen to us, but here are three of the main causes I can see:

1) as in Genesis and the story of Joseph, bad things might happen to us because of the actions of others. They may cause situations out of our control, but that we still have to deal with. As Joseph himself said, God still uses these situations for good. In his case this means saving the family of Jacob, who would later become the nation of Israel, from starvation. In our it might mean God will put someone in our lives who’s going through similar difficulties, and you will be able to support them and tell of His good word in your life.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold, which perishes though it is tested by fire – my be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-8 ESV

2) God sometimes puts difficult situation sin our path to grow our faith in Him and prepare us for the good work we were made to do for His kingdom (Ephesians 2:10). As 1 Peter says, this testing of our faith is precious in the eyes of God and will result in His glory at the end of our timeline.

For the moment discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands, and strengthen you weak knees, and make straight paths for you feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Hebrews 12:11-13 ESV

3) the third reason that I have found for difficult seasons or situations in your life is to correct, train, and sanctify you to become more like Him. Hebrews 12 describes this as discipline, which is another way of saying correction. God puts us in situations to show us where we still struggle with sin, where we don’t trust Him the way that we should, and then sets us back on the right path. Then what is lame – what keeps us from walking straight and strong – is healed. Amen?

Time, wondrous time, gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies.

The last lyric that we’ll examine describes a storm of emotional pain or sadness, followed by the dreamy, peaceful outlook of a sunset sky.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 5:10-11 ESV

I hope that you were encouraged and refreshed by this post about Taylor Swift’s “invisible string.” What threads do you see where God has worked in your life to bring you closer to Him?

Happy fangirling!