top of page

Pastor Glenn McDonald: Happy Birthday

George Fritsma


 

Music historians call it Stevie Wonder’s “classic period.”

 

Pop music fans simply call it miraculous.

 

During a four-year span (1972-1976), the Motown singer/composer, who had just turned 21, churned out five albums of extraordinary, even explosive creativity. Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life redefined the depth and scope of popular music.

 

Even casual music fans can identify hits like “Isn’t She Lovely,” “Superstition,” “Living for the City,” and “Higher Ground.”

 

The artist originally marketed as “little Steve Wonder,” the blind genius at the keyboard, didn’t just write love songs. He sang passionately about the Black community’s search for economic equality, civil rights, and social justice. Such compositions became part of the soundtrack of a large segment of American Black culture.

 

That left Stevie in an ideal position in 1983 to campaign for the establishment of a national holiday celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Three hurdles of approval needed to be cleared – positive responses from a Democrat-controlled House, a Republican-dominated Senate, and President Ronald Reagan, who was not generally regarded as a social progressive.

 

To encourage the government to take action, Stevie decided to write a song honoring Dr. King. He called it “Happy Birthday.” It includes these words:

 

I just never understood

How a man who died for good

Could not have a day that would

Be set aside for his recognition

Because it should never be

Just because some cannot see

The dream as clear as he

That they should make it become an illusion

And we all know everything

That he stood for time will bring

For in peace, our hearts will sing

Thanks to Martin Luther King

 

In August 1983, the House overwhelmingly passed the resolution to establish the third Monday of January as MLK Day. The Senate followed suit in October, and a month later President Reagan signed the bill into law.

 

As music critic Wesley Morris points out in his book The Wonder of Stevie, that marked only the beginning of the impact of the artist’s special campaign song.

 

Just as “Lift Every Voice and Sing” has become the unofficial national anthem of the Black community, “Happy Birthday” now occupies a unique place in many Black birthday celebrations.

 

Morris notes that when the cake appears and the candles are lit, family members and friends typically sing the traditional Happy Birthday song. But that’s just a warmup. Stevie’s song comes next, and it caps everything. Check out the original recording: Happy Birthday

 

A song originally intended to celebrate the birthday of a single person has now morphed into a song “for all of our lives,” as Morris puts it, “to celebrate our place in the world.” Together we acknowledge that each of us had nothing to do with our own grand entrance onto life’s stage.

 

Think about it: The day you were born was arguably the most helpless 24 hours of your life.

 

On that day there was nothing to accomplish on your personal To Do List except to take your first breath. You were weak. And immobile. And uneducated. And uncoordinated. And high maintenance. And speechless. Although it’s a pretty good bet you weren’t entirely silent.

 

In other words, the day you arrived in the world was a day of pure grace.

 

It may be that your arrival was an occasion of boundless joy. Perhaps you were the answer to your parents’ most fervent prayers.

 

Or you may have come into the world, as far as your parents were concerned, as an unintended, unwanted, unwelcomed interruption.

 

Martin Heidegger, the 20th century German existentialist philosopher, taught the notion of “thrown-ness.”  Every human being, Heidegger believed, experiences the sensation of being thrown, or hurled unceremoniously, into the meaninglessness of existence. After all, not one of us had any choice as to parents, circumstances, ethnicity, geography, or generation. 

 

But there’s another way to grapple with the meaning of our lives. 

 

We can reflect deeply on these words of David: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made… My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16). 


Every year, your birthday is a reminder that your life was intended by God. And you did nothing to deserve that.

 

You were not thrown into meaninglessness. You were invited into the drama of God’s Story. Not because of anything you might have done, or might still do. But simply because you are.

 

That’s pure grace.

 

So thank God that you were personally invited to join the party that only he could throw. And thank God that we’ve had the privilege of sharing our lives with some remarkable individuals. 

 

It's in that spirit that we say, “Happy birthday, Dr. King!

 

Stevie would be the first to add that the grace of all of our arrivals in this world should fill us with nothing less than wonder.

4 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Kommentare


JOIN US

Everyone is welcome as we respond to God's love and mercy through worship, service and fellowship.

CONTACT US

205.655.0460

 

6110 Deerfoot Parkway
Trussville, AL  35173

 

office@cahabaspringschurch.org

SIGN UP FOR OUR
WEEKLY CHURCHCAST
  • Facebook - White Circle

© 2019 by CAHABA SPRINGS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA). Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page