Watch the video (see the link to it below) that really tells the story well, because it is a powerful optical representation of who the “Children of God” really are. That’s what Mac Powell and his fellow bandmates Tai Anderson, David Carr, and Mark Lee wanted to express both in sight and sound in 2010 when they made this audiovisual product, a way to really tell how their musical group’s name – Third Day – gives rise to a message that transcends what happens here on Earth. Their group’s home base was northern Georgia (see the photo-map of Cobb County Georgia, where the band Third Day originated), but these four musicians evidently found that home was not bound by a plot of ground terrestrially, but by wherever their Maker was living. And, that’s a pretty wide space, considering that He is the Creator of everything and is therefore omnipresent. You and I can go anywhere and be at home, among His family, as long as He is there. And, as the song underscores, we can invite anyone else to come along and feel the same.
Part of the way through the video, you will see adopted children, identified by the t-shirts emblazoned with adopted, who’ve been brought into human families (including Mac Powell’s family, into which his children Emmanuel and Birdie were adopted). Bill Schick, the director of an orphanage in Mexico, and his family are also pictured with some adopted children. The video then moves deeper into the adopted theme with the adults taking off their shirts to show adopted t-shirts, just like the children, highlighting the song’s message that we are all God’s adopted kids, a reason to celebrate and lift His name in thanksgiving. Though God is the reason that all of this celebration is possible, Mac and Third Day use lyrics that emphasize how ‘we’ humans can rejoice with each other in what He has done for each of ‘us’. ‘We’ is in the lyrics a whopping 41 times, while ‘us’ is sung 10 times, and ‘our’ or ‘your’ is sung 13 times. So, I am not alone. Neither are you. That’s great news! And, the lyrics further tell what comes with being an adoptee. I am ‘redeemed’, ‘free’, and a ‘saint’ as a ‘son’ or ‘daughter’. Just imagine that, these four songwriters say: a community of guiltfree saints who’ve been liberated to treat each other as siblings in one gigantic family. This Father-God that we all share is the One who ‘has given us (all) life’, not in just a singular isolated sense, but as a species that He dearly wants so much, that He spilt ‘the blood of His Son’ to consummate this arrangement. We humans, as parents, might adopt at most a handful of kids, because that’s all we can afford – our houses and finances are limited, after all. But if you were a parent with unlimited resources, what would you do? That’s our Father’s angle on this. He chose us, without reserve.
Just try getting inside the unfathomable mind of Him who made all of us, and continues to make each of us as time marches on. How would/does He feel seeing His image-bearers, those with whom He wanted to spend eternity, being separated from Himself? What could He, the One who is called Love, do about this? What if He were something besides Love? He also defines justice, mercy, grace, holiness, and so much else that our limited minds cannot comprehend – it’s too complex, too much wattage to absorb. So, He doesn’t want you and me to sort it all out, to understand it to the nth degree. What He’s done might still be a mystery – Paul says our inclusion among His people was hidden for so long (see many passages that talk of this mystery in his letters to the Romans, Corinthians [1st letter], Ephesians, Colossians, and to Timothy [1st letter]) – and you and I still might feel a bit foggy. But the video is an echo of Paul’s words – that we’re all on the same plane, all adopted by Him. That is our identity. We all get to Him in the same way, through His love song called Jesus.
Watch this official Third Day Children of God video for a visual story that the song conveys: Bing Videos
Read about the video that visually tells the story connected to the song: Third Day's new music video shines light on adoption
Read about the group Third Day here: Third Day - Wikipedia
Read here some about the director of an orphanage, Bill Schick, who is featured speaking in the official Third Day music video for the song: Third Day, Schick family promote adoption | Samaritan Ministries
See information on the map showing location of Cobb County in Georgia here: File:Map of Georgia highlighting Cobb County.svg - Wikimedia Commons …The following statement accompanies to photo: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so:I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
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