Mary Did You Know? -- Mark Lowry

 

Did he know, that what he wrote would be debated? Mark Lowry was just writing some script for a Christmas play, and he thought about questions that he might have posed to Mary, if he’d had the opportunity to interview her. “Mary, Did You Know?”, he wondered aloud. It would have been something, to have been one of her close friends or family members when she was carrying Jesus, or to see her years later during episodes with that special son. Was Jesus tame, or instead provocative? You cannot read much of your bible and not know that answer. And so, a song about the mother of this unique God-Son, and what she knew about Him, might naturally also give some people difficulty. A young girl can know some things, because she is told by God’s messenger. But can she really know, in detail?  Perhaps that’s what Mark Lowry was asking.

 

It was the 1984 Christmas season, and 26-year-old Mark Lowry was thinking about some ways to personalize a play, with lots of questions that ask the listener to put him- or herself in Mary’s shoes. Critics have complained that Mark’s questions are illogical or otherwise off the mark, especially since scripture (including Luke chapters 1 and 2) does tell us of her encounter with the angel, and that she actually ‘treasured…and pondered them (the related facts about Him) in her heart.’ Yes, she knew of His identity, and evidently spent some mental energy on that fact. Synonyms for the word ‘ponder’, according to this blogger’s WORD application, include ‘muse’, ‘deliberate’, ‘consider’, contemplate’, ‘wonder about’.  Those synonyms do not include ‘completely comprehend’, or even ‘understand’. If Mary had understood everything, why would she have been weeping at the foot of His cross? And so, Mark Lowry had a number of questions that sought answers. Or, maybe some of the questions were in fact merely rhetorical. Mary had been told He was the Messiah, the Son of God, so why ask if she knew He was ‘the Great I Am’? Or how about that He ’would rule the nations’, or was the ‘Lord of creation’? She did know, at least to some degree, but even certainty can nevertheless prompt extended periods of mental searching. ‘What does all His identity mean?’, must have crossed Mary’s mind many times. Perhaps it did also for Mark Lowry, for he says that even after the lyrics were written, it took several more years for accompanying music to gestate in a friend (Buddy Greene). How about those other details of His life – ‘walking on water’, ‘saving all people’, ‘making even Mary new’ (v.1)? Still more stunning details that Jesus would reveal about Himself included ‘healing the blind’ and ‘calming a storm’ (v.2). ‘Mary, did you know?’, might more accurately have been phrased as ‘Mary, how could you have totally appreciated all that Jesus was and is’?

 

Mark Lowry wasn’t trying to be a theologian when he asked so many questions of Mary. Human-to-human was Mark’s approach. It is astonishing that God blessed this teenager in this way, no doubt. But she was human, just like you and me. And, so was Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, David, Elizabeth (Mary’s relative), Paul, and many others to whom God gave a mission. Just read what one writer had to say about such people as these (Hebrews 11). They all had questions, and all were imperfect, and that was OK. If God’s not stunning, and making you ask questions, are you really listening? He’s ready to use you and me, flawed as we are. Just try not asking questions. That’s the impossible part of relating to Him.  

 

 

 

See biography of the author here, and a brief account of the song story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lowry

 

Information about the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Did_You_Know%3F

 

Complete interview with the author, explaining the origin of the song: https://blog.sheetmusicdirect.com/2017/09/how-well-do-you-know-mary-did-you-know.html

Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King -- Thomas Miller, Robert Robinson

 

He liked the original so much, that he wanted more. That’s probably the very shortest way to tell the story of why Thomas Miller came to write “Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King”; the where was most likely a church called Gateway, in a northeast Texas place called Southlake (see map).  Perhaps the story of the hymnist from two and a half centuries earlier struck him in a way that made Thomas yearn for more, as he thought about the old hymn’s and its creator’s message. This must have been one of Thomas’ favorite methods for song development, one that he would use again in a few years. It helped connect him to his musical predecessors, in a way that underscored and lifted the contribution of his ancestors in the faith, while drawing a contemporary audience into the relationship with the One to whom all people of all eras can sing. Thomas’ words, added to Robert Robinson’s 250-year-old words, also imagined a future that we can celebrate today in expectation.

 

Although Thomas Miller doesn’t share what precisely motivated his 21^st Century version of ‘Come Thou Fount…’, there are several clues that draw the attention of someone who chooses to investigate. Miller tells just a few years beyond 2005 what spurred his re-casting of another old hymn (see Tom Miller's version of Doxology in 2008), so we could guess that his method was similar in both episodes. If it was an insightful moment in personal worship and reflection that helped Thomas reimagine Robinson’s classic hymn, then that would be consistent with what happened three years later (in New Doxology). Thomas evidently wanted to capture the theme of Robinson’s poetry, and really his life-experience too. Robinson called himself a wanderer; he admits as much in one of his verses, which Thomas repeats (in v.3 of the 21^st century version of the hymn). So, don’t try to hurry past that dirty linen, that ugly secret, Thomas reasons. Let that admission of weakness blossom into a new verse (verse 2), which Thomas describes as ‘utter darkness’, a place where he was ‘bound…by sin’. It’s the pit from where’s he’s lifted that allows Thomas to exult in a ‘new song’, never again to ‘be alone’.  It’s also from there that Thomas launches into a refrain that addresses God in many synonyms – ‘Fount’, ‘King’, and ‘Prince of Peace’. But, it’s the way that Thomas sees himself and his fellow believers that really captures the song’s heart, the emotion that Robinson seemed to have, but did not say quite as explicitly. Thomas says we Christians are His ‘bride’, His love object. This ‘bride’ is undoubtedly wedded only to Him, in a monogamous relationship. Perhaps that expression also helped spawn the title of the live performance album Living for You (2006), on which ‘Come Thou Fount…’ appears. It’s like Thomas is inviting all who sing his version of the old hymn to feel as if they’re reciting a vow, and putting a ring on one finger. Was Thomas also reading about the husband of which Paul spoke (1 Cor. 11:2), or how about John’s revelation upon seeing a bride (Revelation chapters 18, 19, 21, and 22)?

 

What other words could speak more intimately and powerfully to the lost person, to someone who feels beaten and unwanted? If you’ve felt the sting of rejection, or you feel like an emotional amputee in the wake a spouse’s death, Thomas’ words are for you. Our earthly marriages are often lauded in television commercials. Remember the one for a diamond ring, which concludes with the wife choking back tears because she’s been loved so deeply by her husband? What if that marriage didn’t last – the husband died? There is a realm in which this happens, but then the husband miraculously comes back to take his beloved bride, because He treasures her so much. Would you want such a marriage? That marriage would be ‘Oh, so divine’, as some commercials might say. He’s waiting at the altar.      

 

 

 

See biography of the author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Miller_(pastor)

 

See here the 11/20/2011 song scoop of the classic hymn on which the new hymn is based: https://songscoops.blogspot.com/search/label/Robinson

 

See here a 2011 video of a live performance of the song at the church where the song was created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhd5dUVxOJ8

There's a Great Day Coming -- Will L. Thompson

 

It would not have been unusual for him to have written the first words of this song on a stray scrap of paper. William Lamertine Thompson admitted that’s how many of his compositions began, so perhaps that was also true of “There’s a Great Day Coming”, which this 39-year-old entrepreneur fashioned in the mid-1880s. Was Will at his East Liverpool, Ohio home (see map), or does his poetry suggest he was sitting in a church in this small community when he was moved by a particular moment? This fellow had done much to carve out his own success, and had the respect and admiration of his community and family, in both secular and spiritual realms, but he didn’t lean on just his earthly accomplishments and relationships. One could readily say that Will wanted to be ready for another time, and wanted to challenge others with that same question he must have asked himself.

 

Will Thompson might have been in any number of places with special circumstances that sparked his thoughts, as so often happened with his poetic compositions. He could have been at home in East Liverpool, or maybe traveling abroad as he sometimes did with his family, on the premises of his publishing company, or in a church building during a worship service. These and many others would have been normal venues for Thompson, as he pursued writing and publishing church music, in addition to writing some secular music. Will evidently loved his community in eastern Ohio, and did much in a philanthropic way to preserve its history and set aside land for residents’ enjoyment. And yet, he must have also wanted everyone to know that time there was short, and not to be so cherished that no one planned for an eternal home. With the words of ‘There’s a Great Day…’, it would be easy to imagine that Will was sitting in a worship service, perhaps listening to an especially resonant sermon or taking note of the moment someone responded to the preacher’s message. Was he also thinking about and yearning for someone who was still acting skeptical about the hereafter? The results of that moment or moments could have been scrawled on a piece of paper now long-discarded by Will, but at least he preserved what may still be that episode’s most consequential effect – this song. With the words ‘Are you ready?’ that he asks repeatedly, Will wanted others to be in that moment also. Was Will being merely rhetorical? If he were here, we could guess that he would answer with a loud ‘NO!’ He saw it as a ‘great’ (v.1) and ‘bright’ (v.2) day for the believer, but was not shy about warning people he must have felt were not committed to God. To say it would be a ‘sad’ (v.3) day for the unsaved was not enough; Will told them it would mean their ‘doom’ (v.3), and that the ‘bright day…only come(s)’ (v.3) for the saved. ‘Depart’ (v.3) would be the direction those unfortunate would hear.

 

Will seems to be asking the hearer to decide for him/herself: is this ‘Great Day’ a magnificent one, or instead an awful one? And, does piling on more adjectives to amplify one’s description of that day help you and me understand it better? Will Thompson really didn’t try to underscore he message with more descriptive phrases. Instead, he just repeats the question each hearer must use to probe the conscience. Can you be honest with yourself, even for just a moment? God doesn’t ask for your perfection. He provided that part. What Will apparently apprehended, and what you and I need to see is this: The day is coming; it will be inescapable. Do you want the God of the universe to transport you in that moment?      

 

See short biography on author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/t/h/o/m/p/thompson_wl.htm

 

See a longer biography here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Lamartine_Thompson

 

See all of the song’s verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/g/r/e/tgreatda.htm