{"id":979,"date":"2016-09-17T13:37:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T18:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=979"},"modified":"2016-09-27T20:27:22","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T01:27:22","slug":"coldplay-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Coldplay&#8217;s &#8220;Sky Full Of Stars&#8221; Full Of Profound Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1036\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1036\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2016\/09\/img_3167.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1036 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/257\/2016\/09\/img_3167-300x169.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1036\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">What it&#8217;s like at a Coldplay concert during &#8220;A Sky Full Of Stars&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I have always liked Coldplay and its songs, but I have never been a true fan&#8230;until after I saw them in concert. They put on an amazing show, and it gave me a much greater appreciation for their artistic genius. Their shows also gave me a greater appreciation for songs which, heretofore, I had no idea existed.<\/p>\n<p>One such song is &#8220;Sky Full of Stars.&#8221; Yes, I hear, it was all over the radio a few years back, but I confess, I do not listen to commercial radio that much. When I heard this song in concert (which was truly amazing) &#8211; and then multiple, multiple times afterwards on my phone &#8211; it has captivated me:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;Cause you&#8217;re a sky, &#8217;cause you&#8217;re a sky full of stars<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna give you my heart<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause you&#8217;re a sky, &#8217;cause you&#8217;re a sky full of stars<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause you light up the path<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As I listen to the song, I cannot help but think of God. He is more beautiful than a &#8220;sky full of stars.&#8221; And because of that beauty, I cannot help but say to Him: &#8220;I&#8217;m gonna give you my heart.&#8221; His light truly is as a &#8220;sky full of stars&#8221; that &#8220;[lights] up the path.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When the love of God takes hold in one&#8217;s heart, one cannot help but say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I don&#8217;t care, go on and tear me apart<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t care if you do<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The great thing is that, when you are in love with God, His love does not tear one apart; His love is soothing and full of healing and comfort. And as the song says, when one gazes in awe at the majesty of the night sky &#8211; with all its brilliant stars &#8211; one definitely sees God:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;Cause in a sky, &#8217;cause in a sky full of stars<br \/>\nI think I saw you<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The second stanza of the song applies to our Lord just as much:<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Cause you&#8217;re a sky, &#8217;cause you&#8217;re a sky full of stars<br \/>\nI wanna die in your arms<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna give you my heart<\/p>\n<p>Every time I hear this, I pray to the Lord that I die in His arms. He indeed gets &#8220;lighter the more its gets dark,&#8221; always there to help us when times get difficult and dark. And &#8211; again, as I look at a &#8220;sky full of stars&#8221; &#8211; I behold the beauty of the Lord, and it&#8217;s &#8220;such a heavenly view.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If my reflections on this song stop there, it would be more than enough. They don&#8217;t, however. As soon as I think of God in this song, my thoughts also immediately dwell on my daughter, <a href=\"https:\/\/godfaithpen.com\/2009\/06\/12\/no-greater-pain\/\">who we lost to cancer in June 2009<\/a>. Every single word of this song can apply to her as well:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;Cause you&#8217;re a sky, &#8217;cause you&#8217;re a sky full of stars<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna give you my heart<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause you&#8217;re a sky, &#8217;cause you&#8217;re a sky full of stars<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause you light up the path<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t care, go on and tear me apart<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t care if you do, ooh<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause in a sky, &#8217;cause in a sky full of stars<br \/>\nI think I saw you<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Cause you&#8217;re a sky, &#8217;cause you&#8217;re a sky full of stars<br \/>\nI wanna die in your arms<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna give you my heart<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t care, go on and tear me apart<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t care if you do, ooh<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause in a sky, &#8217;cause in a sky full of stars<br \/>\nI think I see you<br \/>\nI think I see you<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Cause you&#8217;re a sky, you&#8217;re a sky full of stars<br \/>\nSuch a heavenly view<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re such a heavenly view<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As soon as I saw her, I gave her my heart. She lit up, not only &#8220;the path&#8221; of our lives, but everything around her. Her smile was enough to light up the room, light up our spirits, and light up my heart.<\/p>\n<p>As her disease progressed, and we watched her deteriorate slowly, it tore us apart. But, we didn&#8217;t care because she was still with us. By the time she was 10, she couldn&#8217;t walk anymore, and I had to carry her everywhere we went. I knew that people would see me do that and feel sorry for me. But, I swear by the Beautiful Face of the Beloved, I didn&#8217;t care. I was the happiest man in the room, even though I may have struggled a bit to carry a fairly large child into the house.<\/p>\n<p>I was the happiest man in the room because I had my &#8220;sky full of stars&#8221; in my life. What&#8217;s more, up until the very end &#8211; when her disease made her truly miserable &#8211; she never lost her smile. She never complained. She never once &#8211; again until the very, very end &#8211; say &#8220;I can&#8217;t take this anymore.&#8221; Her attitude in the face of severe disability and illness was nothing short of awe-inspiriting. Truly, truly, she got &#8220;lighter the more it gets dark.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her loss did not fail to &#8220;tear me apart.&#8221; The pain of her death continues to haunt my heart, and whenever I go back to those beautiful memories of her, it can become overwhelming very quickly.<\/p>\n<p>And so, all I am trying to do now is live a life of righteousness; I am trying &#8211; struggling, actually &#8211; to live up to the standards of my Beloved <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=987\">on this earth<\/a>. That way, I can be blessed with Paradise and get to see my Booboo again. And, God willing, when I do, I know that she will be &#8220;Such a heavenly view.&#8221; Truly, truly, she will be &#8220;such a heavenly view.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring I have always liked Coldplay and its songs, but I have never been a true fan&#8230;until after I saw them in concert. They put on an amazing show, and it gave me a much greater appreciation for their artistic genius. Their shows also&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[757,450,755,361,9,74,756],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god-in-popular-culture","tag-a-head-full-of-dreams-tour","tag-child","tag-coldplay","tag-daughter","tag-god","tag-loss","tag-sky-full-of-stars"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Coldplay&#039;s &quot;Sky Full Of Stars&quot; Full of Profound Meaning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coldplay&#039;s wonderful song &quot;Sky Full of Stars&quot; reminds me of God...and my late daughter who passed away from cancer in 2009.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coldplay&#039;s &quot;Sky Full Of Stars&quot; Full of Profound Meaning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Coldplay&#039;s wonderful song &quot;Sky Full of Stars&quot; reminds me of God...and my late daughter who passed away from cancer in 2009.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-17T18:37:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-28T01:27:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2016\/09\/img_3167-300x169.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hesham A. Hassaballa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GodFaithPen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Coldplay's \"Sky Full Of Stars\" Full of Profound Meaning","description":"Coldplay's wonderful song \"Sky Full of Stars\" reminds me of God...and my late daughter who passed away from cancer in 2009.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Coldplay's \"Sky Full Of Stars\" Full of Profound Meaning","og_description":"Coldplay's wonderful song \"Sky Full of Stars\" reminds me of God...and my late daughter who passed away from cancer in 2009.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/","og_site_name":"Common Word, Common Lord","article_published_time":"2016-09-17T18:37:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-28T01:27:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2016\/09\/img_3167-300x169.jpg"}],"author":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GodFaithPen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/","name":"Coldplay's \"Sky Full Of Stars\" Full of Profound Meaning","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2016\/09\/img_3167-300x169.jpg","datePublished":"2016-09-17T18:37:28+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-28T01:27:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21"},"description":"Coldplay's wonderful song \"Sky Full of Stars\" reminds me of God...and my late daughter who passed away from cancer in 2009.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2016\/09\/img_3167-300x169.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2016\/09\/img_3167-300x169.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/coldplay-meaning\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Coldplay&#8217;s &#8220;Sky Full Of Stars&#8221; Full Of Profound Meaning"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/","name":"Common Word, Common Lord","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Hesham Hassaballa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21","name":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. In 2007, his blog \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is \u201cthe most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.\u201d \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" has also received an award for being one of the \"Top Muslim Blogs for 2010\" by Awarding The Web. In addition to writing, Dr. Hassaballa helped found the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and currently serves on their board of directors. He also co-founded the Bayan H. Hassaballa Charitable Foundation and now serves as its Treasurer.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/GodFaithPen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/author\/hhassaballa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1047,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}