Last night I attended a Year 7 concert at my son’s school. They were, on the whole, gorgeously awkward- singing songs about being happy with very straight, very cool faces.

My favourite moment was near the end when a long-haired girl stepped to the front, to sing a solo. After a few moments, she began to falter a bit. From where I was sitting, however, I could see at least 2 adults in the front row of the audience, mouthing the words to her. You could see the girl visibly take strength from this; she straightened up, slightly smiled, and for the rest of her performance kept glancing at these adults for reassurance. They may have been her friends or relatives or they may have been strangers, but whoever they were there for her.

I’ve had in mind recently the last scene in the film The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy wakes up in her own bed after her adventures in Oz, surrounded by her family, the three farmhands, and the travelling salesman. (You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZSb0JCWcXk )

‘But it wasn’t a dream,’ Dorothy says. ‘It was a place and you, and you, and you, and you were there, too.’

It struck me that God is with us when we are in ‘Oz’ or in our own black and white world, appearing to us in the people who love us and who help us on our journey. God mouths the words to us when we forget the lyrics, and if we could only see it we would know that God has been there, applauding us all along.