With a worship theme of miracles, we have songs offering explorations of this subject from a variety of perspectives and questions.

“The Architect,” by Kacey Musgraves, is a dreamy serenade that contemplates our lives here on this earth. A sense of wonder grows throughout the song the imagery evolves in scope from an apple, to a flood, and to the Grand Canyon. Musgraves seeks reasons for it all, be it from god or goddess, nature or science, asking: “This life that we make, is it random or fate?”

“Let the Mystery Be,” an original folk song by Iris DeMent, explores matters of belief in a unique and unorthodox manner. DeMent talks about where we might or might not go after death, looking at what everybody says. Figuring that nobody really knows, she decides to “let the mystery be.” Dement, who was raised in an ultra-religious Pentecostal family in Arkansas, explained her transition from these beliefs: “By the time I was 16, I didn’t believe that story, that there was all this separation between me and all these other people in the world just because they didn’t claim Jesus Christ as their personal savior. I didn’t buy it, and I have to say, it wasn’t my choice to not buy it, because it meant having to leave the church.” She adds a statement of belief in the final verse: “I believe in love, and I live my life accordingly. But I choose to let the mystery be.”

“All I Need is a Miracle,” by Mike and the Mechanics, is a rock hit from the mid-1980s. Songwriter Mike Rutherford, originally of Genesis fame, commented, “The thing that makes ‘Miracle’ different, to me, is that it’s primarily a happy song. It’s ‘up’. And I don’t do that very often…It may not be optimistic, but it’s a positive attitude to life.” The positive feeling of the music is built a cumulation of its pulsing rhythms, its form constructed upon ascending modulations, and the progression toward cathartically uplifting refrain. This musical vibe is simultaneously counterbalanced by lyrics that explore regret and self-evaluation of one’s past behavior while hoping for a miracle or another chance.

 

— Chris E.