If God had a name what would it be?
And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with Him in all His glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?
If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the Saints
And all the prophets?
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?
Just tryin' to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody callin' on the phone
'Cept for the Pope, maybe in Rome
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?
Just tryin' to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone?
Back up to heaven all alone
Just tryin' to make his way home
Nobody callin' on the phone
'Cept for the Pope maybe in Rome
And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with Him in all His glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?
If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the Saints
And all the prophets?
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?
Just tryin' to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody callin' on the phone
'Cept for the Pope, maybe in Rome
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?
Just tryin' to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone?
Back up to heaven all alone
Just tryin' to make his way home
Nobody callin' on the phone
'Cept for the Pope maybe in Rome
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In an interview, Joan Osborne stated that the song was less about religion and how we view God, and more about how we see each other. She, in my opinion, is able to convincingly show us how poorly we treat each other by using disguising God in a human form.
ya ethan
Not nearly as profound a thought as people seem to believe.
This song is about the death of authority. People feel secure if there is some higher power informing them of their place in the world. If god is one of us he is no wiser than we are. We are alone in the world with no authority to guide us. With no higher power we must make our own choices. Not to be too Freudian, but this song is about reaching the age when our parents aren't gods to us and we must find our own path. And the sadness the loss of absolute certainty entails.
Thanks a lot Jacosta for your comment. Even if your comment is saying about lost of the authority, your comment felt like one higher guideline to accept loss of parent support.
And yet, there's LP's comment: "In an interview, Joan Osborne stated that the song was less about religion and how we view God, and more about how we see each other."
Wow! I've been looking at the song backwards!
What if God were one of us, but I didn't know who... and yet I share this planetary bus with all these people, and maybe, just maybe that slob here, or that lost person there, is God.
What would I do differently just thinking that? What would everyone do? Would we stop ignoring the slobs and the lost, and treat them with love and compassion, simply because of how special they might be?
But wait, they are special.
-Pie
I think 'God' in this song is really meant to be more of a metaphor for authority, but I could be wrong.
really great honest thought provoking
"What you do to the least of these, you do to Me..."
What would you ask God if you had to narrow it down to one question? There's so many things he needs to explain. Suffering. Human misery. Why he doesn't do more for us. Which question would you put to him?
Would you even want to talk to him, if he came with all the baggage of, say Christianity? If it meant you had to subscribe to organized religion?
God is great. And remote. And out of touch. He has no idea what we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. He lives far away on a cloud.
Would things suck as much as they do if God had to walk a mile in our shoes? What if HE had to ride the bus to his little apartment and sit there all alone like an old man. Would life be the way that it is if God had to be just a slob like the rest of us?
@asdf_daf He had lived as a human and suffered, as Jesus. Also, when you think about it, He has no obligation from anyone to do anything. He can define what is right and wrong Himself. He doesn't even have to keep us existing. Yet, you have a possibility to live an eternity with Him without a tear in your eye. I think that's a lot from someone who doesn't owe us absolutely anything. Who holds the higher moral that you can complain about God to? Us humans?
Does anyone know where the clip at the beginning of the song comes from? It sounds like something out of the Alan Lomax collection of folk recordings. It seems to me that knowing more about that song could shed some light on what this song means.