This week at Bear Creek we are featuring some of the music from the 2016 hit musical “Dear Evan Hansen”. These last couple of weeks our choir has been rehearsing “You Will Be Found”, one of the big power ballads from the musical, and I can’t get the words and tune out of my head. They are so powerful!
Even when the dark comes crashing through
When you need a friend to carry you
And when you're broken on the ground
You will be found
So let the sun come streaming in
'Cause you'll reach up and you'll rise again
Lift your head and look around
You will be found
As I was trying to figure out why these words are so powerful to me, a memory flashed before me of when I was younger.
I was about 6 or 7, and I had 2 older brothers who I just idolized. I wanted to be around them all the time. Especially when their friends were around. There was just something about hanging around kids who were bigger than I was! And so, I hate to say this but...I became that clingy, pesky, baby brother who was always bugging my brothers if I could play too!
(Anybody remember the Mercer Mayer “Me Too!” Book? I was that little sister!)
One day my brothers and their friends decided that they were going to play hide and seek, and for some reason they were very eager to let me play. Looking back now…that should have been my first clue.
They wanted me to hide first. I couldn’t wait! I had the perfect hiding place. There was an old broken down garage in our back yard. I was scared to death of the place. I mean there were cobwebs everywhere. And to this day I’m a little scared of spiders. But this was my big chance to prove I was a big kid. In that old garage, there was a loft! And in that loft there was an old blanket. This was the perfect place to hide! Even big kids didn't venture up in that loft!
And so, while my brothers and their gang counted to 50, I headed to that loft and bravely covered myself with that dirty, dusty, cobweb-infested blanket. And while I was there, I waited and waited and waited for them to find me. I waited for over an hour and I would have lasted even longer if a mouse hadn’t scooted across the floor of the loft and crawled under the blanket with me! It was then that I started to cry, not out loud mind you! I was determined to hide!
Eventually I was found by my older sister, Ida. She informed me that my brothers hadn’t even tried to find me. They had all taken off fishing hours ago. They had no intention of finding me!
Ida quickly got me out of the loft, took me into the kitchen, and comforted me with a hot cup of Tang. I love my sister Ida and hot Tang to this day!
This is one of my earliest memories. One of my best. It was indeed wonderful to be found!
Since then I have learned a few things about the adult game of hide and seek! Sometimes, for instance, I have learned that if you want to be found, you have to let people find you. Too many of us stay up in that attic way to long. When will we learn that in order to be found by the Holy and Sacred, we have to be vulnerable enough to let the Holy and Sacred find us.
Your friend and pastor, enjoying a hot Tang and thinking of calling my sister, Brook