I’ve had more than one person ask me about the lyrics to my song Water into Wine. The confusion is around the difference in the lyrics when I’m singing about Jesus feeding the multitudes. Early in the song the lyrics are:
“He fed five thousand people With five small loaves of bread Two fish was all the meat they had But everyone was fed”
Later in the song, I sing the following:
“He fed four thousand people With seven loaves of bread A few small fish was all the meat they had But everyone was fed”
Several years ago, I had an opportunity to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of the things that I enjoyed seeing is the notebooks that the songwriters used when they were working on their songs. It made me think about the different methods that I use when I’m writing songs. I wish I would have written all of my songs in a journal but that’s not the way that I’ve worked. I do have some journals that I have used to write a few songs. I also use the journals to write a few of the ideas that I have for songs and the earliest threads of ideas for songs. Most of the time, these ideas are transferred to Word files. I keep those files on a jump drive that I have with me most of the time. I carry the drive to work just in case I get an idea and I want to get a record of it before I forget it. The unfortunate thing about the files is that they are edited. I move words and phrases around with little to no traceability of the evolution of the song from one form to another. It’s really convenient for creating but bad for documenting the creative process.
What was it like for the people who saw Jesus do miracles? What would their reaction be? What would it be like to be in one of the people in the crowd of 5,000 that Jesus fed with five loaves of bread? Would you have even known what was going on with the food? What would it be like to see him heal a blind man or drive a demon out of someone? What would be your response?
