“Daniel” at Sight & Sound

On Saturday night, our youth group went to see … this:

At 3:30 pm, Pastor Michelle and I crammed into Michelle’s dad’s car with Hannah, Jeremi, Sam, Sylvie, and Noura, and we drove 45 minutes to Nick and Emily’s house in Downingtown. Which, by the way, is lovely. If you haven’t been to visit them yet, your pastors encourage you to do so!

After a noisy pizza dinner, we redistributed ourselves into two cars and drove the remaining 45 minutes to Sight & Sound Theatres in Ronks. The show was epic. The costumers and set designers had definitely risen to the challenge of recreating the palaces and gardens of ancient Babylon. Everything was done at a towering scale. At intermission, Noura reported that she was completely overwhelmed. “In a good way or a bad way?” I asked. “Good,” she said.

I was overwhelmed in a good way too. I didn’t agree with all the choices the scriptwriters made in adapting the story, but I got to feel like I was there. I got to feel what it must have been like for Daniel and his three friends to be taken from their homes in Jerusalem and carried away to this opulent, oppressive city. I got a sense of the power that was offered to them and the danger they faced. And I saw how hard it would have been to stay faithful to their God.

After the show, we all carpooled back to Nick and Emily’s house, where we fought over who would sleep where. In a friendly way. Because we are old, Michelle and I got to sleep on a mattress in the office upstairs. The youth got to compete for the couches. But everyone found a nook to nest in, and we all slept at least a little bit.

In the morning, Nick and Emily treated us to a breakfast of bagels and granola and coffee. Then we all headed back to Ambler for church, where the youth helped with the children’s story, and somehow I made it through my sermon.

Love,

Pastor Jacob