Sometimes, it’s a song that gets stuck in our heads. On other days, it may be an idea, a verse, or a quote from a movie. Words have a way of burrowing into our brains and repeating themselves.

Singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken describes these recurring themes in our minds through the lens of a tune with a great hook—that memorable line that sticks with us. It’s not just clever lyricists who know how to pen a great hook, McCracken explains. The Creator of all often does the same.

“God knows how to get our attention through a memorable thought or encouraging word, and he writes with a songwriter’s touch,” McCracken recently wrote at CT. “Consider the poetic composition of John 1: ‘All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men’ (vv. 3–4, NKJV).”

Catchy, no?

While Scripture abounds with such phrases, McCracken points out that it isn’t the only place where “God’s songs” show up in our lives. The lyrics to modern music, a sentence pulled from a book, the words of a friend—each of these and more can remind us that God is nearby, speaking words of truth and love.

Wherever we go and whatever we do, may we listen for that holy sound.