Songfacts®:

• Michael Card told CCM Magazine Presents 100 Greatest Songs In Christian Music that this song was inspired by his love of literature. He explained: "I'm a big Emily Dickinson fan. And in one of her poems there is this beautiful line that says, 'When love was crucified, it arose.' So I took that thought and applied it to my faith. My song was really just an attempt to capture that instant of resurrection - that moment when this heart that had stopped beating started beating again, this chest that had stopped breathing started to rise and fall again. We don't know exactly how it happened - the Bible doesn't give us any details - but that's what I was trying to picture. I wanted to give a poetic overview and paint the background with lines like 'Long ago He blessed the earth…"
• When Card was told by CCM Magazine that this song had been judged to be among their Top 100, he expressed his surprise as he didn't think, "it was that good a song." Then he concluded: "But I do believe in the message of it, and the real point of that song is this: Because Jesus' grave ended in the resurrection, our graves are going to end in resurrection too."