Dig Here Said the Angel
from the Daniel Amos album Dig Here Said the Angel
Words & Music by T.S. Taylor
©2013 Shape of Air Music, BMI

“Dig here,” said the angel
I asked “My heart? Or my grave?”
“Maybe both,” said the angel, “things can go either way.”
“There’ll come a time,” said the angel,
“you’ll lose that wrinkled suit of skin.
And when you walk up to the big door you can go right on in.”
I cried then,
I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’
Night and day
I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’
To see your beautiful face
“Here’s the catch,” said the angel
“You’re gonna suffer for awhile”
“I’ll tell you straight,” said the angel
“Don’t plan to go out in style”
And meanwhile
I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’
Night and day
I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’
To see your beautiful face
Repeat chorus
note:
“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”
-Philippians 1:21

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
-Galatians 2:20
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his”
-Romans 6:23
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”
-Colossians 3:3
“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”
-Philippians 1:21
“He must increase, but I must decrease”
-John 3:30
“I am torn between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ—which is far better—“
-Philippians 1:23
“I die every day”
-1 Corinthians 15:31

Of course the reality of our own mortality grows more pressing as we grow older, the years of our younger selves seemingly sluggish in their progression when compared to the merciless sprint of our twilight years. The angel in “Dig Here Said The Angel” is telling us to dig deeper and go below the surface of our temporal lives by embracing our suffering and our inevitable passing as the terrible and beautiful grace that it is; the means by which we sustain a hope in glory through the knowledge that “we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.”

TST