Message in a Bottle- full circle
photo by Bill Carroll
I had the privilege of sitting in on an InSpero songwriting retreat a few days ago. I’m always in awe of those people.
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As in years past, I listened to talk about the craft and the process of others, and we talked about how the power of a song being written is often in how personal the story line is—and how we can “mine” our lives for truth.
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We talked about how God lives in the lives we actually have.
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We went around the circle to talk about our “writing,” and I really didn’t claim that I’m a writer at all. I make lists and I journal; in honesty, I’ve pulled way back from words again because these last years being human don’t feel safe to me in that way.
As we went on, we talked about how in the Garden of Eden—after the Fall—God was out looking for Adam in his shame as he was hiding and God said, “Where are you?”
photo by Erin Nolen
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As I sank into the goodness being shared, I thought of how good music (good art) whispers that God is out looking for me: He’s coming for my heart.
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It’s easy to hide and sometimes not to realize you’re even doing it. It’s easy to escape or numb or to feel like God isn’t out looking for you, but in reflecting this morning I was remembering how much I’ve longed to “be found” ever since I was a little girl.
Maybe we don’t even realize sometimes that this is what we most long for??
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I remember as a child those many notes I wrote to a mystery, not-yet-known, possible “friend”… tucking them into little soda bottles, tightening the cap, carrying them like treasures to the bridge over the river on that favorite country road and throwing them into the deep water moving below… with great hope I’d be found.
(The Pea River to be exact)
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I wasn’t allowed to sign my name to these many notes sent out into the wild world—but I guess at that age, I didn’t realize this meant no one was coming for me because there was no way to be found.
At least I had put my heart out into the deep waters.
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There were also many bottles I was allowed to hurl off the bridge out into the channel near the beach as my gentle and patient granddaddy would slow the Cadillac, roll the window down enough to give me time on the big bridge… I’d gain momentum and cast the bottle with the message out to sea.
(Remembering that one time the glass bottle hit the side of the bridge and shattered the glass) Oh the tears—I’d never be found.
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For most of us living outside of Eden, it feels like no one is looking….
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One day a few years back I had a call from my mom—and she let me know of a story that flooded me with nervous joy.
“Someone found your note.”
Headline “Enterprise 6-year-old finds message in a bottle more than 20 years old.”
The Southeastern Sun, Wednesday, January 14 2004
A curious boy named Chase visiting his grandfather at a fish camp in Florida found one of my bottles covered in algae and mud, the aluminum cap rusted, on the riverbanks; the note dated July 22, 1982.
Chase was used to combing the riverbanks with his grandfather looking for driftwood but had never found anything “this exciting.”
They say this river flows everywhere and no telling where this bottle was thrown in.
The note read,
“Dear whoever:
I’m glad you found this bottle.
I can’t reveal my name, but I can tell you I’m ten years old. I live in Montgomery, Alabama.
If it’s okay with you, we could still be friends.
Sincerely,
Unknown”
Chase says he hopes to hear from the person who wrote the note but it may be unlikely.
Anyway, he says he won’t forget the day he found it.
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Today I’m just thinking deep down I still long to be found—we all do—This desire is burned deep in our dna.
I found Chase today 3/25/23 and he sent me a picture of the bottle- he’s kept it all these years later- he said every time his family has moved (4 different states) he’s wrapped the bottle carefully in old socks to keep it safe and his family has displayed it on their mantle in each home. waiting.
Chase says it hasnt been opened since i closed it.
(he found it 20 years after I wrote it and I found him 20 years later).
Chase is now 25, the same age as my oldest. We are planning a lunch-date next week near 30-A.
I’m still in awe.
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Jesus said that we must become like little children… maybe to become like a little child means to write again without fear—in hopes I’ll be found—or to remind someone out there: HE is out looking for you
In longing and unearthed loneliness—our honest, vulnerable, messages are treasure in the hands of the One who is out seeking—Feeling more known than unknown.
Gina Hurry
“Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.”
Hebrews 11:1 TPT
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