If you've ever read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, you'll see the connection. Heaven is symbolically portrayed as this place "At the end of the rainbow" where "life has only begun." Depending on your level of letting-go of attachments, even your love of your family, a love greater than any kind of mortal love creeps into and begins to fill you up.
Look at the imagery here; Dylan sings about a place "across the divide" where "love waits forever, for one and for all."
"My wretched heart is pounding
I felt an angel's kiss"
The song "Amazing Grace" reflects the Protestant ethic of referring to your mortal self as a "Wretch" who is full of sin.
"I found you just in time
It's dark and it's dreary
I've been pleading in vain
I'm wounded, I'm weary
My repentance is plain"
In "Amazing Grace," you sing about being lost and found. Amid all the turmoil, the "flame and fire" of life, you want to "build your world around" something immortal, so you can transcend the world with your love.
This song talks about mortality and life being spared, and ends with "I've got more than a lifetime to live lovin' you" meaning love lasts forever, and soon "we'll be on the same side" (we = Bob and God/Immortal Love).
Dylan is a Christian nowadays, and not only is he a recent convert, but he's old, so it makes sense he'd be thinking about mortality and how he made it through his wilder youth and now sees God with this love that transcends all his other loves...
It's a song about God, not a person, I believe.
If you've ever read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, you'll see the connection. Heaven is symbolically portrayed as this place "At the end of the rainbow" where "life has only begun." Depending on your level of letting-go of attachments, even your love of your family, a love greater than any kind of mortal love creeps into and begins to fill you up.
Look at the imagery here; Dylan sings about a place "across the divide" where "love waits forever, for one and for all."
"My wretched heart is pounding I felt an angel's kiss" The song "Amazing Grace" reflects the Protestant ethic of referring to your mortal self as a "Wretch" who is full of sin.
"I found you just in time It's dark and it's dreary I've been pleading in vain I'm wounded, I'm weary My repentance is plain" In "Amazing Grace," you sing about being lost and found. Amid all the turmoil, the "flame and fire" of life, you want to "build your world around" something immortal, so you can transcend the world with your love.
This song talks about mortality and life being spared, and ends with "I've got more than a lifetime to live lovin' you" meaning love lasts forever, and soon "we'll be on the same side" (we = Bob and God/Immortal Love). Dylan is a Christian nowadays, and not only is he a recent convert, but he's old, so it makes sense he'd be thinking about mortality and how he made it through his wilder youth and now sees God with this love that transcends all his other loves...