By Scott Anderson —
I went to the play today, like I usually do, and have done for my entire life…. but today something interesting happened.
Throughout my life, I loved going to the plays. Actually I loved being IN the plays. When I was really small, someone used to give me a ticket to get in. Since I could stand, I would punch my code into the old brass ticket machine, and something like a raffle ticket would come out. I would give it to the usher and exclaim, “Here’s my ticket!”
And he would say, “Thank you and welcome back, glad you’re here. Please come in and enjoy the play.”
I asked the usher more recently, “Why can’t I have ALL of my tickets to the play at one time, instead of having to go to the machine every single day?”
He simply answered, “it just doesn’t work that way ….one ticket for one day…. that’s the deal.“
I said, “OK.” Since I’ve been to quite a few plays, I’ve recently started wondering how many tickets I actually had left. So, I finally got up the courage to ask him the question.
“Why would you need to know that?” he inquired.
And my response was, “Well, it would just be nice to know. I’d like to have a whole lot of tickets. I’d like to have so many tickets I can’t even count them.”
“Well, most people feel like you do,” he replied, “but you can’t be in yesterday’s play today and nobody can be in tomorrow’s play today. You can only be in today’s play today. No one knows how many tickets anyone has left except the director. And even if I was able to give you all your tickets you have left right now, the ticket for today would probably be less important to you, knowing that you have so many of them.”
“I think I understand,” I told him. “That makes sense. Well, who is the director anyway?”
The usher said, “Well, he’s been doing this for a long time, and he knows exactly what he’s doing. You can trust him. He’s been directing your play ever since you were born, and he knew you even before that.”
His response reassured me. I did so love going to the play. I would always see people from work or from church, old friends and new friends. Sometimes I saw people I didn’t really want to be friends with. My family was in most of the productions, although my mom and dad haven’t been to a play for a long time, but my brothers still show up occasionally.
It was an interesting theater, because there weren’t any seats in the auditorium. It was just one big stage. I was on stage all the time, and others would just come and go, It was a huge stage.
I remember asking the usher many years ago, “Are there any rules?”
“There is a script written by the director, but we don’t ever get to see it,” he said. “We just know there are two rules, and we all try to follow them as best we can.
“What are they?” I asked.
“You have to love the director and also love everyone in the play,” he said.
Looking back on it, loving the director was pretty easy, even though I never met him face-to-face, but he left an instruction manual that I know pretty well, and he made sure there are lots of people on stage with me to help me understand his instructions…even though there were some days I didn’t really like the play.
Sometimes the plays were sad, I specifically remember a really sad play where my mom, for some reason, stopped coming to the plays. That play didn’t end like I expected. Sometimes the people in the play weren’t very nice. But I loved the director anyway (and still do), because I was pretty sure he knew what he was doing. It was sometimes hard for me to love everybody in the play but I did the best I could.
I was glad I got a chance to be in the play no matter what.
Today I got up in my usual way and went down to the theater and went up to the old brass ticket machine and punched in my code, but no ticket came out. I tried my code again and again, but nothing happened, no ticket.
I admit, I was always a little afraid of what would happen if the ticket never came out. And just then an usher who I had never seen before touched my shoulder and said, “Oh, congratulations! You are you out of tickets!” I’ll let the director know you’re here!”
“So I don’t get to be in the play today?” I asked.
“No, you’re all done with being in the plays, but the director said you did a good job.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting him!” I said.
“Oh, you’ve actually met him many times and he knows you very well,” the usher replied. “He was even in your particular play many times, but dressed as somebody else. In fact, he loves you a lot and he paid an incredible price for me to bring you upstairs.”
The usher took me up what seemed like a thousand flights of stairs, but it wasn’t an effort at all. He left me in front of an old wooden door and said, “That’s the director’s room, just knock and He will let you in.”
I knocked on the door. It opened, and standing in front of me was who I hoped it would be — It was Him!
His face glowed in a way I never could have imagined, and he was smiling, he looked like I thought he would…. and then he didn’t look quite like I thought he would, but it was incredibly amazing to see him face-to-face.
He said, “Well done Scott, you loved me, and you loved the people in the play, and those are my two biggest rules.”
I said, “But I have to tell you, there were times where I didn’t follow the rules and there were times where I don’t think I did what you wanted me to do.”
“I know,” he said. “But don’t worry, Scott. Please remember that I took care of all that, just so I would be able to see you now.”
“What do we do now?” I asked.
He said, “You get to sit with me up here in the director’s booth. I’m going to show you so many things, so many beautiful things, and you’ll never miss going to the play every day. But I need to tell you Scott, I loved how you enjoyed getting your ticket every day, you always were so glad to have it, and you always looked forward to getting one the next day….A lot of people don’t look at life that way.
I said, “I have to admit I didn’t enjoy every single play, and I even hated some of them….but I always looked forward to getting my ticket……so no more tickets?”
He said “Yes, there’s one more ticket and I am it. I am your ticket. In fact, I’m the last ticket you’ll ever need Scott.
I said, “Now it all makes sense, but I do have lots of questions…”
“I thought you would, and I will answer them all as I show you around,” the director replied. “You will love it here, Scott. Welcome to forever with me. Now, why don’t you go say hi to your mom and dad; they’re right over there.”
