Godspell: The Original Soundtrack of My Faith--Matthew 6:26
Day 7
At the 2:46 mark of the video All Good Gifts from Godspell, the young guy with the big afro sings out, “I really wanna thank you Lord!”
This is the only part I remember singing from the song as a boy and I remember being self-conscious about saying stuff like that even then.
I’m not sure why earnest gratitude (or really earnest anything) always bugged me. I’m missing that basic strand of DNA somewhere, I think.
Some people are great at earnest expressions of their faith and their graciousness and I feel like I’m looking through a pane of glass at them–even though I feel just as grateful and gracious.
Last night, we attended an 80th birthday party of one of these people who just HAS it.
The party was sort of inverted. I didn’t feel like we were there to celebrate her. Her party felt more like her celebrating us. 🙂
She fed us, kept us watered, and had a great little musical duo playing to keep us dancing.
Like the song–all good gifts (and meatballs, baked ziti, and open bars) are sent from Heaven above.
We plow the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land,
But it is fed and watered
By God's almighty hand.
He sends the snow in winter,
The warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine,
And soft refreshing rain.
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above,
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord
For all His love.
We thank Thee then, O Father,
For all things bright and good,
The seedtime and the harvest,
Our life, our health, our food.
No gifts have we to offer
For all Thy love imparts,
But that which Thou desirest,
Our humble thankful hearts!
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above,
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord
For all His love.
I really wanna thank you, Lord!
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above,
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord
For all His love.
Maybe it’s a reach, but when I read the lyrics about plowing and seeds, I thought of the birdseed and suet that Karen and I put out in my Mom and Dad’s backyard to attract the birds, which is wonderful entertainment–especially for my Dad.
And Jesus, in Matthew 6 commands us to consider the birds–but as more than just entertainment.
Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they?
It’s a good reminder that God provides the conditions for life without any of our help.
Our birds have adapted NICELY to having full bellies and having birdbaths to share gossip around.
And they do seem largely unconcerned about the origin of their largesse.
Should we thank God in the same way–just know that we will be provided for?
Thomas Salerno, in My God Moment: You and I Are Worth More Than They, tells the story of passing by a field of birds happily chattering and finding food and realized, like we need to realize, that God will provide for us and for us not to worry:
“I had read the words of [Matthew 6:26] many times, and heard them preached from the pulpit, yet I had never truly understood their meaning before that moment. Instead, I had foolishly tied my sense of self-worth to the success of my career, or my perceived lack thereof, leaving me open to depression and to the lies of despair.”
I’m amazed, truly, that stupid birds flying around my parent’s backyard is such a God moment for them and for us.
But it is.
Oswald Chambers notes in Look Again and Consecrate:
“Behold the fowls of the air” — their main aim is to obey the principle of life that is in them and God looks after them. Jesus says that if you are rightly related to Him and obey His Spirit that is in you, God will look after your “feathers.”
The birthday girl thanked us last night for making her night, her 80th birthday, special.
We should have been the ones thanking her.
Just like we should be thanking God for all the good gifts around us.
I really wanna thank you Lord! (And I proclaim that–earnestly). 🙂
Lord, teach us to trust in Your bountiful love and provision for us. Help us to release our worries, knowing that You hold us in Your hand.
Lord, fill us with gratitude for all of Your good gifts and grant us humble, thankful hearts.
Amen.