"There Was Jesus" by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton: Finding Him in the Wreckage

Even in loss, Jesus was already there.

Dolly Parton passed away on August 25, 2026, at age 80, after a brief battle with cancer, surrounded by family in Nashville. For seven decades she sang about faith, poverty, grace, and home — and one of her earlier duets (with Zach Williams) carries a message that fits her passing perfectly. In “There Was Jesus,” Dolly Parton and Zach Williams trade verses about the moments we miss Him most: “Every time I tried to make it on my own // Every time I tried to stand and start to fall.” Life doesn’t wait for permission before it crashes down. “When the life I built came crashing to the ground // When the friends I had were nowhere to be found” — that’s grief. That’s a hospital room, a phone call you dreaded, a silence where a voice used to be. That’s seeing great people passing away. Where was God in it? “I couldn’t see it then but I can see it now,” the song answers. “There was Jesus.”

Psalm 34:18 says it plainly: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Near — not distant, not delayed. Grief has a way of making you think that you’re alone in the room. You’re not. He was there in the diagnosis. He’s there in the empty chair at the table. He’ll be there tomorrow morning when you wake up and remember all over again.

So today, name the moment you thought was empty. Look back at it. Ask yourself: what if He was there the whole time, even when you couldn’t feel Him? Let that question change how you walk into tomorrow. Give “There Was Jesus” a listen and let two voices — one of them now silent on earth but not in heaven — remind you: “On the mountain in the valleys, there was Jesus.”

(Related scripture: Psalm 34:18; Deuteronomy 31:6; Isaiah 43:2)

Release date: October 4, 2019

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