Pulled back to the shore.

“Because of You” is a song of gratitude — plain, direct, and unguarded. Franklin McKay sings to the one who pulled him back from the eye of the storm, and the whole record is a thank-you note set to melody: for trust, for faith, for the belief that he could fly.

It opens in the storm. “In the eye of the storm You pulled me back to the shore. Taught me trust And to never give up.” The rescue is the whole song — not a metaphor, but a memory: someone reached in, pulled him back, and taught him the two things that matter most. Trust. And never giving up.

And then the lift: “You made me believe I could fly Over the clouds To the deep blue sky.” It is the song’s central image, and the artwork knows it — a bright blue sky, a sea of clouds, the sun breaking through. The belief itself is the gift: not that the storm never happened, but that someone made him believe he could rise above it.

What follows is the change, stated plainly: “Now everything is changed And the hurts been replaced With happier days round here. And there’s no second guessin’ I’m feeling alive And there’s no lookin’ back on those yesteryears.” No hedging, no looking back. The past is the past. The feeling is alive, right now.

The song keeps its focus on the present — on living today: “Tomorrow will be forgot If you’re livin’ today. Words you spoke When you showed me the way. You kept my focus on love Redeemed my faith in so much I lost my way But found again.” That is the song’s spine: focus on love, faith redeemed, a way lost and then found again. Not a doctrine, but a decision — to live today, to keep the focus on love.

And then the quietest, most intimate moment in the record: “I can hear the calmness in your voice I can see the knowing in your eyes When you talk it’s like I’m hypnotized All fear subsides.” Calmness. Knowing. The voice that stills the fear. It is the song’s proof that the rescue was real — not just a story about the storm, but a voice, in the present, that makes the fear subside.

And here is what makes the song work as a piece of craft, not just a thank-you note. The gratitude is carried by a melody that is warm and unguarded — this is a song in the lineage of Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant: faith-rooted, melodic, emotionally direct, the kind of record that speaks plainly about the things that matter most and trusts the listener to feel them. It’s from the album Awake, and the songwriting is the point: Greg Fitzgerald and Franklin McKay wrote it in the plainest possible language — storm, shore, clouds, sky, love, faith — and that plainness is what gives the song its pull. The “because of You” refrain lands because the song has earned it: it has spent three minutes in the storm, in the hurt, in the lost way, and then it lifts its eyes to the deep blue sky. That is the craft: a song that says thank you, and means it, and makes you feel it too.

If you love Michael W. Smith or Amy Grant, this one’s for you.