Larry Norman passed away on February 24 (my birthday). He is best known for his song, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready". This song is about the Second Coming of Christ, but he had several others on that same subject: "Even If You Don't Believe", "Messiah", and "UFO". However, he also had songs celebrating less supernatural ways of meeting God: "Goodbye, Farewell", "I Hope I'll See You in Heaven", "All the Way Home", and others.

Norman, when he came on the scene in the 1960's and 1970's, had a way of speaking directly to the current culture. Songs like "Why Don't You Look into Jesus?", "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?", and "I've Searched All Around the World".

Larry also sang about issues in the heat of the moment, when it wasn't fashionable. During the Vietnam war he had songs like "Letter from the President", where an illiterate man gets his draft notice, but, unable to read it, wonders why the President would write him (this song is an obvious indictment about how the government seemed to draft citizens of a lower income and education). Meanwhile, "Great American Novel" raises several issues: "Your money says 'in God we trust', but it's against the law to pray in school, you say we beat the Russia's to the moon and I say you starved your children to do it."

Larry had obstacles later in his career. In 1978 he was in a plane accident which left him with a brain injury. It was difficult for him to write, but he did have several new releases even after this challenging experience; among them, I think the best were: Stop This Flight (1984; a live album with all-new songs), Home at Last (1989; a studio release that was dubbed his 'comeback'), Stranded in Babylon (1994; it was the best-selling Christian disc in Europe the year it was released).

There was also the live disc Omega Europa, from 1994. At this time, after several heart attacks, doctors had given him MONTHS to live, so Larry did what he thought would be his final European concert (he went back again in 1998). He was accompanied by his then-eight-year-old son, Michael. While some fans are annoyed by this album, I found it very sweet that Larry and Michael ended up singing together on most of the songs. It showed that Larry was more concerned about making good memories with his son than making a rock album.

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I am happy that Larry is in Heaven with our Lord and Savior, but it does make me think how quick time flies. He would have been 61 in April. That's not a long time, really. I would be saying that if he had been 100.