Things You Took Away

The story

I have been blessed to know many people in a variety of places. One beautiful family has been a part of my memories since I was a young girl. In my mid-teens, I had the privilege of singing with the husband and wife repeatedly and accompanying they and their three young children. Our family held revival in their church one October, and a few months after that meeting, I was asked to play for the funeral of that young pastor’s wife and mother of three gorgeous children. It was an ending none of us expected — we’d prayed for healing, but that healing never came.

Some years later I was in a service and heard the father of those three children — the husband of that wife who lost her life to cancer — I heard him say these words that took hold of me, “It’s easy to thank Him when He gives you things. It’s difficult to thank Him when He takes things away.” I jotted down the seed thought in the middle of church and wrote this song a few months later.

Many words in this song are a reflection of places I’ve visited in my own journeying. We beg and implore and plead with God to make Himself known to us in deeper and richer ways. Often the way He answers our prayers is through unspeakable pain. And we choose to thank Him for trusting us with this sorrow, we thank Him for the things He takes away — even the good things.

The Song

1. I never thanked you
For all the things
You took away or
You never gave me
I never thanked you
For all the times
You would not answer
My selfish cravings

I never thanked you
For all the tears
You let me weep to
Teach me of mercy
I never thanked you
For all the days
I spent in sorrow
And you seemed to leave me

[chorus]
Thank you
For trusting me with sorrow
Thank you
For introducing me to pain
Thank you for
The loneliness and isolation
Thank you for
The things you took away

2. I never thanked you
For all the love
You squelched so quickly
When I wanted relief
I never thanked you
For all the joy
Sweet for a moment
But you turned to grief

I never thanked you
For giving me days
Friends couldn't under-
Stand what I carried
I never thanked you
For slipping so close
Lifting the sorrow
My burden bearing

Lyrics & music by Merilee Barnard © October 9, 2016