Our Work Comes Full Circle

The last guests were filtering out the doors.  All was peaceful, our first slow moment of the day.

Then, a loud cry from down the hallway.

I dropped the box I was carrying and turned towards the noise. A woman was hunched over, hand over her mouth, crying. Andrea stood next to her. What was happening? I looked at Grace with alarm.

“That’s her in the photo, Spencer.”

At this woman’s feet was an oversized photo printed on foam board. The photo showed a woman singing in the Bright Star choir at Songs in the Night. Judging by the pixelation, the photo was taken years ago.

We’d brought the photo along with 10 others like it for some added décor at Songs in the Night. They’re only on display for one night a year.

This year, we’d only put a few of them on display because we didn’t have enough room in the hallway for all of them. The one that she stood over had not made the cut.

Looking at the woman cry, I thought of a quote my friend Haley once shared.

“God writes really long beautiful stories.”

This woman’s story:

She’d been incarcerated at Pulaski State Prison. She’d joined the prison’s choir led by Minister Greene. Years ago, she’d performed with the choir at HeartBound’s Songs in the Night gala. Underneath the choir robe she’s wearing in the photo, there’s a prison uniform.

Standing in the hallway before us, she wore a beautiful gold dress and heels. She was Hollywood glamorous.

She’d been released from prison. This was her first Songs in the Night as a guest. There was no prison escort with her this time. She didn’t have to make the long drive back to Hawkinsville in a Georgia Department of Corrections bus afterwards. She was a free woman.

After the event that night, Andrea stopped to speak to her and said, “I know you!”

The woman smiled and replied, “Yes, I used to be in the choir.”

Immediately, Andrea lit up. “Wait! I think we have a picture of you! Hold on!” She dashed over to a stack of foam boards, flipped through them, and pulled one out. Sure enough, there she was - our friend in a bright red choir robe, eyes closed, singing her heart out years earlier.

Andrea urged her to take a photo holding the foam board, standing in front of our sequined backdrop. It was a full-circle moment if there ever was one - past and present coming together in the most beautiful way. Only God could orchestrate such a thing.

All I could think in that moment was, “There’s another captive set free.”

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Isaiah 61:1.

Hallelujah.

Spencer