Children of God -- Mac Powell, Tai Anderson, David Carr, Mark Lee

 

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 [1^st letter], Ephesians, Colossians, and to Timothy [1^st 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.

Sing to Me of Heaven -- Ada Powell

Ada Powell. Few other details are known of her, or even if this composer was a her, although this name is normally given to a female. Ada could have been a shortened version of Adelaide or Adeline, but there is more significant information than her name that one could gather about Ada from the words she composed for the song “Sing to Me of Heaven” early in the 20^th Century. What motivated her poetry can be surmised, at least speculatively, from the verses she recorded. And, since she doesn’t appear to have been a complete novice at verse composition, we could imagine that she engaged in similar activity over a reasonably lengthy period, either professionally or certainly in a semi-serious way. In other words, she was keenly involved in her walk of faith, and probably sought the companionship of others whom she hoped would reciprocate. What picture of heaven did she and others imagine – was it like this one, shown here?

Ada Powell authored at least a few dozen hymn poems over her lifetime, including this one about heaven that was first published while she was still a relatively young woman in 1914. As a 32-year-old poet, Ada most likely had been engaged in previous efforts, perhaps in a collaborative way as “Sing to Me of Heaven” proved to be. While she wrote the verses, her musical comrade, at least on this occasion, was Benjamin Beall. The music to another of her songs (“Do Something for Jesus”) was written by another composer (Benjamin Hultsman, Jr.), so evidently Ada was not entirely anonymous among her contemporaries. Her theme through the three verses of “Sing…Heaven” suggests Ada’s premise for writing was either personal or group-centered. ‘Sing to me…’ is a hint, not unexpectedly, that she was among other believers from whom she needed to draw strength or who were in need of her fellowship. In short, this group needed to be each other’s angel chorus, to simulate what each longed to experience in another realm. Did 30-something Ada feel life’s weights (v.1), suffer with loneliness (v.2) or depression (v.3)? Or, did she know others who knew these sensations too acutely to keep silent? Even a relatively young person could probably say ‘yes’ to either of those questions. The world was a complicated, busy, stressful, and challenging place in 1914 – at least for Ada and her friends.   

She might be mostly anonymous, but Ada Powell said something over 100 years ago that certainly sounds familiar. Heaven has a reputation. Some people with near-death experiences say it’s wondrous. Our bibles say something about it being a glorified earth. It’s the upside of death’s journey, the alternative to the horrible. Ada said it’s a place that’s sweet, bright, and gleaming like a pearl. She hadn’t been there either when she wrote these words, yet she was willing to take a chance on it, probably as she thought about earthly days in comparison that were none too pleasant. Are you like Ada? 

A list of the songs that the composer generated is here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/p/o/w/powell_a.htm