Let It Be

(Recommended Reading:  Matthew 9 & Hebrews 11)

Anyone that grew up in the 1960’s without a doubt knows about the Beatles.  They were all the rage and dominated the music world.  One of the members of that group was Paul McCartney.  When Paul was growing up, their family was not very well off financially and his Mom worked hard at a job then came home to care for her family.  He said that even though their time together was limited, she was a comforting presence in his life.  But when he was 14 his Mom died.  As time passed after her death he realized he was having difficulty even bringing her face to his mind without a photograph as a reminder.       

In the late 1960’s the Beatles came out with a new album titled “Let It Be”, which was also the title song on the album.  I had always been curious about the line in the song that says:  “Mother Mary comes to me.”  I assumed, like apparently many others, that it was referring to “Mother Mary”.  But after doing some research this week, I discovered that is not correct.

The research led me to this story – in the late ‘60’s the Beatles were starting to have some problems and Paul McCartney felt they were close to breaking up.  He apparently was pretty distressed over this, especially when it is coupled with the fact that the other three band members had partners to share their lives and Paul did not.  So Paul spent his nights in London “living hard and playing hard.”  He was beginning to feel like he should be searching for a partner but was emotionally pretty unstable.

But one night he had a dream – “…my mother appeared, and there was her face, completely clear, particularly her eyes; and she said to me very gently, very reassuringly, ‘Let it be.’”  (His mother’s name was Mary.)  The next morning when he awoke he felt great and went to the piano and started writing a song – and that song was “Let It Be”.  After he had formulated the song he played it for the other band members and many others and their next album was born.  It was not long after that when he met Linda and they married; and, when the group recorded that song, she sang with them.

What caused me to do the research on that song is this.  I have a calendar that each day has a thought for the day/prayer and a scripture reference.  On September 19 the scripture reference was Matthew 9:29.  Prior to verse 29, Jesus had healed 2 people, raised a girl from the dead, recruited a new disciple and answered questions from the disciples of John.  Then starting in verse 27 (NKJV) we have this story:  “When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us!’  And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’  They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’  Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith let it be to you.’”  [Emphasis mine]  

For some reason I was not able to get that phrase out of my mind for days, so I researched that Beatles’ song and found the interesting story of how it was born.  Each day since the 19th, the thoughts/prayers/scriptures have all dealt with faith.  Then on September 24th the reference scripture was Luke 17:5 (NJKV) – “…the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’”  It is pretty amazing to me to think about how those apostles had been with the Lord for a good period of time.  They had heard His teachings and seen Him perform many miracles, yet they felt a need to ask for their faith to be increased!  If they had such a need, then the need in our lives is so much more.  We cannot limit or  doubt Him, so we should daily ask Him to increase our faith that we can accept all He wants to do in and through us.  

The Merriam-Webster dictionary has one definition of faith as:  “firm belief in something for which there is no proof”, another is “complete trust.”  Those definitions can make faith a really hard thing to comprehend.  Hebrews 11 is often referred to as the faith chapter because it is filled with an impressive list of men and women that exhibited liberal amounts of faith – some beyond my comprehension.  But I like the way The Message translation puts verses 1-2:  “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.”

Faith is hard.  Choose hope and believe what God has promised.  Faith is the basis for everything and our faith in God is what can and will help to make our life worth living.  So each day, it would be to our benefit to pray for God to increase our faith so that our lives can be full and satisfying.  

Let it be Lord, let it be!

Written by Karran Martin

September 26, 2021  

* My source for the story about the Beatles, Paul McCartney and the birth of that song and album: https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2008/10/21/408754/who-mother-mary-mccartneys-let-it-be

**When you know the story behind the song, reading/listening to the words give them a new meaning.  If you would like to refresh your memory about the words of that particular song, here is a source for it:  https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/letitbe.html