"It's You"

A few years ago, a woman in our church named Lynne spoke to me about how the Lord had laid on her heart the image of manna when considering how a mutual friend endured her bout with breast cancer and the treatment thereof. If you don't know, manna is a mysterious food substance God provided to the Israelite community for nutrition as they travelled through the wilderness en route out of Egyptian captivity. You can read the narrative in Exodus 16.

The key characteristic of this experience the Israelites had, though, was the fact that—barring exceptions made for the Sabbath—manna was provided daily, and lasted for but one day. If folks tried to gather too much and keep it longer than a day, it rotted. The takeaway here is that God is willing and able to provide what His people need for each day, on each day, but that some (great) measure of trust in His provision is required to overcome our human tendency to try to solve our own problems (often with miserable results).

Anyway, with this picture of manna in her mind, Lynne approached me to consider writing a song in honor of our mutual friend with manna as the theme. Now, if you asked me to list a hundred song topics I'd like to cover, I'm sure manna as a metaphor wouldn't make an appearance on the list at all! But God's provision is a pretty key theme in the life of the Believer. So I accepted her challenge, and more quickly than I expected.

After church that day, I rapidly changed into soccer gear in the restroom and flew out the door to a match I was probably going to be a little late for. As I drove down Harris Blvd., I recalled my conversation with Lynne. Almost instantly, the first half of a chorus melody and lyrics sprung into mind. I had to whip out my phone's voice recorder feature to capture the moment. As soon as I put the phone down, the other half of the chorus spilled out, causing me to grab for the phone again. (I promise I kept my eyes mostly on the road through all of this!) Anyway, before I had really put much effort into it at all, the song's melody, chorus, bridge, and verse outline were completed. I spent a few more weeks doing piddly little tweaks to the verse lyrics and chords, etc. But in the end, I had a song.

Here it is:

It's You

It's You who set the world in motion.
It's You who governs over all.
It's You who brings the sunshine after the rain
And You who makes the rain to fall.

It's You who holds us when we're hurting.
It's You who lifts us when we're down.
It's you who offers peace when we can't understand
And you who stands beside us now.

Give us this day our daily bread
and grace to face what lies ahead;
A humble spirit so we'll give
the credit where it's due.
We're asking not to win the war
but strength to fight just one day more
So when the victory comes, it's You.
Lord, it's You.

It's You who knows our every weakness.
It's You who fashioned every one.
It's You who calls the faithful to trust You again
For You, yes You, have overcome!

Lord, You're near to us, but it's mysterious
How You nourish us with manna from above.
It's not logical; it's a miracle
Lord, You're wonderful and worthy of our love!

© 2011 C. Michael Pilato. License: cc-by-3.0

I hope someday to post sheet music for this so that others can use the song if they care to. If you follow my blog (which is statistically very unlikely, but...) you'll know to expect that this work comes with very few usage restrictions, and why. Read the content of the license linked above for full details.