My first experience back in a theater – any theater- since before COVID started was beyond wonderful.
It was my first visit ever to the Paramount Theater in downtown Charlottesville, VA, with a beloved high school friend. Built in 1931, the theater had all the hallmarks of an era gone by. A beautiful old fashioned marquee out front, red velvet rope lines, ushers, long, narrow lobby, carpeted staircases with bannisters, ornamental ceilings and a fairly modest-sized stage with plush seating in the orchestra area and balcony. I wished I had dressed up a little more to be there. The evening was worth dressing up for.
The show was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. and it did. Amy Grant and her incredibly talented band of musicians opened with one of my favorite songs called “Stay for Awhile.” I was 16 years old when that song was released as the first single on “The Collection” album. I still remember loving it from the first time I ever heard it. What a perfect song to open with after a long hiatus from the live stage performances that breathe fresh air into the world in a way unlike anything else, in my opinion. “Long time since I’ve seen your smile, but when I close my eyes I remember. Stay for Awhile.” (Grant, Kirkpatrick, Smith)
Stay for awhile we did as the show went on for nearly three hours.
With all the beauty, energy, grace and talent she ever displayed in her younger years, Amy impressively performed song after song from her earliest work to the bubble-pop, catchy tunes that catapulted her across genres from Contemporary Christian music to Billboard Top 100. Many in the audience were on their feet when the oh-so-familiar opening bars of “Baby Baby” started playing. I enjoyed the nostalgia of the moment and the enthusiasm of the audience, but in all honesty I have never fully understood the record-breaking popularity of that particular song.
Toward the end of the evening, in a simple acoustic performance by the artist: my favorite song of them all. “El-Shaddai.” Written by Michael Card and John Thompson in 1982, the song recorded by Amy Grant on her album “Age to Age,” became one of the most enduring melodies of God’s love and faithfulness in my life through all the “chapters” and seasons to date. I think I was around 14-15 years old when I first heard it on an old cassette tape. I was just about the same age my twins are now. It was just about the time I met the dear friend I was sitting with in the audience. The one who texted me the concert information last summer and said “Look who is coming to Charlottesville! We simply must go.”
Although I had the opportunity to see Amy Grant in concert several times throughout the mid-80’s, I never had the opportunity to hear her sing “El-Shaddai” live.
Life for all of us has been difficult and challenging over the past eighteen-plus months. As I have noted in other posts since my “blogging journey” started in March 2020, we have not escaped the wrath of COVID unscathed in this family. In many ways for us, and for so many others, some aspects of life as we knew it before COVID is no more. Even more reason to continuously count our blessings.
What an amazing “good and perfect” gift to be reminded once again, through the live performance of a beautiful, timeless song in my life of faith in a God who does not change from “Age to Age.”
We grow older, we live, we learn and every once in awhile, we have the opportunity to experience an incredibly poignant moment to remind us once again: We change. God does not change.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
James 1:17 NIV