A little taste of the best...

This is sad, the fact that we seem to live in this rut of commenting on great happenings several days/weeks after they transpire. This follows in kind.

Where: Cochran, Georgia
When: The day we did the show in Cochran, Georgia

Throughout the evening, I feel like I'd developed some sort of stage relationship with this pretty little girl in the front row. I pointed her out during the first act because she seemed to relish everything happening onstage. At the intermission, we chatted a bit, and right before we were to resume, she walked up to the stage and loaded me up with a handful of change. Of course, the second act took off before I could even unload the booty, so I skibbled to the piano and dropped the jingly paydirt on the amp. Act 2 proceeds.

This little girl, no more than 9, stays with us for the whole of the show...until the crucifixion. I think the combo platter of loud rock paired with the writhing body of the recently acquainted guy playing Jesus, seasoned with dark lighting and the floor full of the wailers, just may have set her over the edge. All I saw was this little lady run from her seat in the absolute frontmost location to the end of the row to the protection only a mother can offer. Trying to keep composure, I had to fight for airtime because this little lady punched out a volume I almost couldn't match.

After the show, we stayed around the stage a little longer than usual. She had cried through the last five minutes of the show, the cast introductions, our closing prayer and song, and, lastly, our formal meeting on the stage. She and her brother came over, faces red and wet, and squeezed me as if that would dry their eyes. In her most perfect Georgian accent, she bubbled out, "You skeered me!"

It didn't feel like it was a moment I should enjoy, but it just seemed too great not to revel. The fear of God is supposed to prompt a conscious return to His grace and love. She may not know it, but that little miss did my heart good.