In week 16 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for an incredible gift.

If I mention the black, opening crawl of “Star Wars” you can see the logo and almost instantly hear the theme music, can’t you?

Iconic, right?

What if I told you I personally knew someone who played first chair in a section of the orchestra responsible for that original score?!

But, what if I told you that they conducted the score for that orchestra?

Or, what if I told you they wrote the score for that 100+ piece symphony orchestra?!

That would be amazing, right?

Well, my brother, Nehemiah Luckett, composed, orchestrated and directed music for “Ruby”, a production that I am confident will find it’s way to Broadway.

My mother and I drove 26 hours round trip to see it.

It was worth every second.

The story, the writing, the acting, the choreography, the music, and the vocals were stellar.

I hesitate to say pitch-perfect for fear of sounding like I’m overstating the case because he’s my brother, but it was just that good.

No. It was better than good.

It was excellent.

As it unfolded, I forgot I was watching a play and it challenged me in ways that good art tends to do.

As I attempted to comprehend all the moving pieces, to think that my brother wrote melodies and words that so beautifully conveyed such hard truths, music not for one instrument but an entire band, vocals not for just one singer but dozens, and helped to orchestrate a production that constantly teetered on making me want to avert my eyes and never being able to look away,

I was left in awe

because my brother is a maestro,

but more so, because he invited me to see his incredible gift and so graciously chose to share it with me.

I’m grateful.

I love you Nehemiah Luckett and I’m very proud of you, always have been.

#52WoG

If you’re interested in learning more about Nehemiah’s wonderful work or supporting it, you can do that here: https://bit.ly/nehemiah-patreon