On the day after the death of Eddie Van Halen to cancer at the age of sixty-five, Howard Stern devoted a portion of his show to pay tribute to this legendary guitarist and pioneer musician. He made the following remarks, which I found to be quite touching:

“When Eddie Van Halen came on the scene, I never heard anything like that. You knew that something superior was happening. He was exactly what I want to look like, exactly the kind of talent I want, exactly what I want to be doing with my life.”

I got a lump in my throat listening to Stern’s words, and suddenly I could hear “Jump” playing in my mind, as fresh and crisp and powerful as it sounded when I heard the song for the first time in 1984. I was three years old. My Dad pumped up the volume when the song came up on the living room stereo and I ran around the house, totally out of my little mind. Apparently, I was not the only kid who had their first entrée into rock and roll by way of Van Halen. Nineteen years later as a freshman at Trinity College, “Jump” broke the ice between me and my roommate, Dave. As we rocked the first-floor hallway of our dormitory, Dave shared that he had the exact same experience: Dad pumping up the radio and him running around the house—wanting to be the rock star guitar hero who awakened something deep down in his three-year-old soul. “Something superior was happening.”

That intense feeling that Howard felt when he first experienced Eddie Van Halen—hearing him play and having this sense that that’s what he wanted to look like, that’s the talent that he wanted to possess, that’s the thing that he wanted to do with his life—is definitely a feeling that most of us can relate to. I imagine that most of us can think of an inspirational figure who impacted us in such a way that it awakened something inside that said: “Yeah, that’s what I want to be doing with my life.” Many of us wouldn’t be where we are now if we did not have an experience like that, and continue to follow that intuition, that still small voice speaking through or underneath that sublime virtuosity, that manifestation of what is truly great, lovely or beautiful.

Stern went on to say something quite haunting: “This is the thing that I’m hung up on. All of that talent – all of that expertise is gone now. It’s gone. It drives me crazy, where does all that talent go? Will we ever see another one like him?”

The answer, I believe, is yes. I think of the story of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who entered into human history at a specific place and time. Every action, every look, every miracle, every word he “spoke with authority” in a way that none before him had ever spoken—all of this pointing to “the way, the truth and the life” that we are called to aspire to. And yet, all we have are a few words of Scripture, a collection of stories, sayings and the reports from those who were closest to him and passed the story on to various communities that grew in his name. After Jesus’s death (and perhaps even more so after he ascended into heaven) the disciples stood there looking up at the sky and wondered, “Now what? Where does all that go? Will we ever see another like him again?” And of course we know how the story went, and continues to go, to this present day. Christ’s words and teachings, Christ’s loving presence and the work of Christ’s mercy takes on flesh and goes into the hearts, minds and bodies of those who followed him and continue to follow him. People see Christ when they encounter an authentic Christian, a manifestation of Christ’s loving presence in the world—the many who are “like” the one who irreversibly changed history and the world, for good.

Where does Eddie Van Halen’s talent go? Will we see another like him? There will never be another Eddie Van Halen, no way. But his legend will live on in the talent of the countless number of musicians that he has inspired, those who heard him play and thought: “That’s what I want to be doing with my life.” Their awakenings will continue to give life to that unique talent that changed rock and roll forever.