Some angels choose to stay, not soar.
A man stands at the edge of the sky, wings ready, Heaven waiting. He could leave. He could soar. Instead, he stays. That’s the setting of “Earthbound Angel”, twenty years after it first played on local radio and found its way into the hearts of teenagers who hadn’t yet been burned by love. The song was written fresh out of heartbreak, half-convinced that love wasn’t worth believing in anymore. When he dug past the cynicism, he landed somewhere older and truer: love that gives without expecting anything back.
Sound familiar? We hope it does, because this is the story of Jesus, who had every right to remain untouched by our mess and chose otherwise. In Philippians 2:7 we read that He “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” No halo on display, no wings spread for applause. Just presence, purpose, and a love that serves before it speaks.
Where in your life are you tempted to fly above the mess instead of staying in it? Real love doesn’t hover. It shows up. Choose someone today and serve them without keeping score — that’s the love that Jesus modeled, and it’s the love you were made to give. May this song remind you what staying really means. “To serve, to love, and to care.”
(Related scripture: Philippians 2:7; John 15:13; 1 John 3:16)
Background:
Our upcoming single “Earthbound Angel” was actually inspired by the movies City of Angels, and What Dreams May Come (apart from being rooted on the Christian values of what LOVE is supposed to be).
City of Angels is a story about an angel (Nicolas Cage) who falls in love with a mortal woman (Meg Ryan), and sacrifices his being an angel to become human to be with her. This transformation would allow him to experience humanity and feel what it is to love and to lose. LOVE is never a one way street as it not only brings all the good feelings associated with that emotion, but all the hurts and pains as well being on the other side of the coin.
What Dreams May Come on the other hand tells the tale of Chris (Robin Williams) who dies in an accident and left behind his wife Annie (Annabelle Sciorra) who eventually took her own life after losing her entire family in an accident. Chris would risk his status as an angel to travel to the depths of Hell to save his wife to the point that he is willing to exchange his place in Heaven for Hell just to save Annie from eternal damnation.
Both stories tackle about the idea of Love and Sacrifice by using Angels as lead characters to represent how one makes the ultimate sacrifice just to ensure that Love will eventually conquer all.
Though both films had criticisms from Christian communities (which are valid due to lack of Biblical/theological premise and depicting Angels that leaned more on the secular context), we wanted to take note of the romantic elements of the film while also aligning it with our understanding of the Christian values of love.
While both movies romanticized the love and sacrifice done by the protagonists depicted as angels, we maintain that the ultimate sacrifice eventually belongs to Jesus Christ’s greatest act. The giving of his life and allowing himself to suffer and die for our sins.
Our song “Earthbound Angel” was mostly framed by secular listeners as a love song. About staying and never giving up on Love, giving oneself to the other as an ultimate expression of one’s love. But to our Christian friends, there was never any doubt that the song simply spoke about Jesus as we bear witness of his proclamation of his love for us, even at the expense of his life.
When I wrote the lyrics of our song "Earthbound Angel", it came from a place of trying to sincerely express all this love that I know of that was bottled up inside me after a failed relationship. I questioned a lot of things and went back to the most basic ideas and characteristics of what love is supposed to be.
It was easier to be pessimistic about love. Not to take it seriously. But then I dug deep and believed in the basic Christian teachings of what love is supposed to be. Hence, I came up with the lyrics of "Earthbound Angel" that feels "cheesy" and "corny" to those who view love under a pessimistic lens. Well, until that frame of thought completely changes once you get to the roots of what love truly means.
Back then, the song resonated to a lot of high-school students when the song got played in the local radio stations. Resulting to a good amount of following from teeners who have yet to be betrayed by love and believed in love at its purest and innocent form. This was what got us noticed by our audience.
But the most surprising interpretation we got was when someone made mention of how the song spoke about Jesus' love for us. Originally, it was the farthest from my mind when I wrote the words, but upon re-reading what I just wrote, it slowly dawned upon me that she was right after all. Because while I wrote the song as inspired by the Christian teachings of what love is, it also spoke about someone who decided to stay here on earth (hence an earthbound angel) to live among us and teach us about how it is to truly live and love.
The song from then on transformed from a typical love story to a testimony of Jesus' love for us. Looking at it from a skeptic's point of view, love will remain to be corny and cheesy. But if we truly understand the love that Jesus gave us and the sacrifice he made, then love is something that is truly powerful that goes beyond our human limitations and understanding of it.
I guess, after 20 long years, with our re-imagining of "Earthbound Angel" in time for our 20th anniversary, our merry band Thoughts And Notions bannered by Thrina Dimaano Escaño's vocals and WiLe LiLe musical wizardry, we have truly transformed the song to its final version where we speak about Jesus' love for us. About understanding what it truly means to love.
Love is not selfish, it is selfless. And until we understand about sacrifice and putting others above ourselves, we will never find the true meaning of what it feels to love.
Jesus showed the way. Are we ready to follow and express the same kind of love?
If ever we feel tired and weary of the times that love failed us, Maybe it’s about time to revisit what true love really means.
Maybe that idea was always there all along….
If we just continued to believe and keep the faith in Jesus…
We just hope the song would inspire you to give love a chance. It’s not always about the receiving, but giving one’s love to the other without expectations and demand for reciprocity is the true meaning of what LOVE TRULY stands for.
Release date: June 19, 2026
Lyrics on: https://genius.com/Thoughts-and-notions-earthbound-angel-20th-anniversary-edition-lyricsConnect with Thoughts And Notions
- Website: https://thoughtsandnotions2013.blogspot.com
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