Thanks, Brad Smith. That much is all that this songwriter might want you and me to say to him, because he would most likely want us to reserve the lion’s share of our gratitude for three others that he considered so much more worthy than himself. Following his lead in this exercise of appreciation, by “Give (ing) Thanks to the Lord”, is perhaps about as much as Brad wanted anyone to know about himself. This conclusion is what one might deduce after a fruitless electronic investigation into just who this Brad Smith is; Brad is therefore classified as ‘anonymous’, and yet hardly unknown to the One he extolled in 1996. Most of us think of thanks secularly in November, when an image of Cornucopia might be used to connect gratitude with a plentitude of food (as the image here might do). Brad had plenty of reasons for feeling the way he did, but had he really exhausted all the reasons or was he really just beginning to spark others’ thoughts for unending applause? Is your horn of plenty overflowing? See what you think.
What circumstances spurred Brad Smith in 1996 are a mystery, but the brief verses in his poetry provide us all we need to see what he was thinking. Perhaps not knowing where he was, or anything at all about Brad makes his thanksgiving that much more adaptable to the various situations in which we might find ourselves, as a new year called 2023 begins. Brad could count at least eight reasons to ‘Give Thanks to the Lord’ in 1996, and none of them are limited by location or anything in our physical world. Does that tell us that Brad ignored what was going on around him? That he did not address any of the earthly events ongoing in 1996 really just suggests his eyes and his heart’s vision became clearer when he gazed vertically, not horizontally. The world is a confusing, muddy mess most days, compared to what drew Brad’s attention. And yet, he must have noted at least some physical things, for he mentions ‘the works of His hand’ immediately; so, God’s creation in this earth was something with which he began his praise. The remainder of Brad’s poem indicates he looked up and recognized that the Creator of all things that he could see was also the source of so much that he could not physically touch. These were an ‘unshakeable kingdom’, and a realization that He has not left us ‘forsaken’ (v.1). His ‘righteousness’ and ‘love’ (chorus) are immutable qualities of our God that Brad thought were so praiseworthy, worth repeating over and over in his poem. Brad’s spirit was also tuned to the significance of the ’Father…sending His Son’, for the ‘Son’, and the ‘Spirit’ (v.2) who came in Jesus’ stead once the crucifixion-resurrection mission was accomplished here on earth. This life-altering, revolutionary action by our God surely made Brad’s heart race, as he writes that we ‘lift…voices to God…and shout’ to the rest of humanity about what He’s done (v.2). To sum up, Brad saw God’s creative, sacrificing, and redeeming fingerprints everyplace he looked – all evidence of the righteousness, holiness, and love nature of Him. Nothing else Brad could have said was on the same plane as those things.
Brad Smith – if you know him and what was going on in 1996, respond! (See where you can ‘comment’ below at the end of the blog entry.) It always helps to know that a poet-songwriter was managing his life the same way that all of us readers-singers do daily. Is it trite to say that life itself is a gift? Maybe Brad asked himself that question, too. If I’m healthy most of the time, if all of my activities seem to line up easily, and if my devices work without a hitch, then the challenge for me seems to be not to get complacent and take these things for granted. All that stuff could go haywire – and sometimes it does! – making me appreciate when it is put back into order. Brad thought about the other stuff that God has taken care of for you and me. What if He had not done so? What would become of my outlook if God were not love, righteousness, holiness, etc., had not sent Jesus, had not asked Him die and rise again, and had not sent the Spirit. Think about it.
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