God in the theater

It's become pretty common to hear culturally relevant churches/pastors doing a series based on movies. Tonight, I ran into God (again) in the musical theater.

We celebrated our friend KimD's birthday (um, last July!) tonight with dinner and tickets to see Annie at the Eisenhower Auditorium. My wife (Kim) cooked the traditional Rhodes family chicken meal, which was superb, and we headed over to the auditorium. The crowd was late arriving (like us), and the show started before lots of us found our seats.

Do you know the storyline of Annie? Orphan girl, trapped in the system, inhospitable living conditions, Great Depression, greed and deceit...and somewhere along the way--new life, love, and adoption. My heart felt like it was going to explode (love burst) when Warbucks tells Annie that he loves her.

I love musical theater. Kim and I have been taking in shows for most of our 17 years of marriage. We went to Toronto to see The Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast for our 7th anniversary. We've seen Music Man, Mame, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Oliver...But by far, our favorite is Les Miserables. In a word, incredible. The story of grace, redemption, sacrifice, honor...I love it.

It could be our pending adoption that makes my heart pound at stories like Annie. It could be the fact that we are all (spiritually speaking) separated from our families, and needing love and adoption. I came away from tonight's production amazed at the talent, and wowed by the staging, but more impressive was the reminder that we have a heavenly Father who has loved us with an incredible love, who has spared no expense to redeem us and bring us back into his family, and who showers his love and blessings on us.

Thank you Father!