To Read: Click on song title to watch a video 

Tomorrow

from Annie (P.S. If you want the 1999 movie version click here)

The sun’ll come out, tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar, that tomorrow there’ll be sun.

Just thinkin’ about, tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs, and the sorrow ’til there’s none.

When I’m stuck a with day, that’s grey, and lonely,
I just stick out my chin, and Grin, and Say,
Oh, the sun’ll come out tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on ’til tomorrow, come what may
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow
You’re always a day away (repeats)

 

From the Scriptures:

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
⁵⁵ ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’

1 Corinthians 15.51-55 

To Reflect:

‘Tomorrow’ is here at last – Alleluia!

When I first planned these reflections I knew that this was the only song from the West End for Easter Day.  It takes the freshness of new life and fills everyone with hope, even the President of the United States.  If only all those who inhabit the halls of power of nations across the world had a ‘Little Orphan Annie’ as their cheerleader and adviser on international affairs.  The whole world would be a happier and safer place.

As has happened in several of the Musicals we have spent 40 days enjoying some tunes are sung twice, each time the reprise means something different than the song sung at the beginning.

That is one of the reasons why I have chosen to give you two versions of ‘Tomorrow’.  The darkness of the beginning turns into the joy of the end.  ‘Tomorrow’ was Annie’s song long before she ever met Daddy Warbucks.

The second reason I chose two versions comes closer to home, touchesthe people of Manchester, and a brave young so called ‘  pop-kitten’ by the name of Ariana Grande.  It was at her concert in Manchester on 22 May 2017 that a bomb ripped through the arena resulting in the loss of 23 lives.  The version of the song ‘Tomorrow’ above was Ariana’s first public performance.

After the explosion, and some incredible generosity to the families of the bereaved, this young woman arranged worldwide stars of the music world to give a free One Love Manchester Concert for survivors and their family. Ariana closed the show with a heart-breaking rendition of Over the Rainbow which helped begin to heal the wounds of many.

Would that for all of us the version of Annie’s song ‘Tomorrow’ we sang in our hearts was the one at the end of the show not the one at the
beginning.  Ariana’s ‘One Love Concert’, and her determination to sing through her own grief and fear reminds us that, regardless of the darkness and disaster that surrounds us, that ‘Christ has been raised from the dead’ (1 Corinthians 15.20) and for each of us whatever our circumstances…

in all these things we are more than conquerors

through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor rulers,

nor things present, nor things to come,

nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8.37-39

Whatever Easter Dawn holds for you today, may you know that you are held by the One who holds us all in Light, Life and Love.

Bless you my friends.

To Pray:  

Christ Jesus is here
here,
as on the first day;
here among us eternally,
as on Easter morning;
here with us for ever
as fully as on the first day;
here in our midst
through all the days of his eternity:
for he is risen!
Alleluia!

Pierre Talec, France

Encore: Click on song title to watch a video

The philosophy of the song ‘Tomorrow’ beginning and ending Annie, is what helps the girls at the orphanage cope with A Hard Knock Life.

Acknowledgements:

Prayers are from ‘Prayers Encircling the World’ and are copyright © SPCK: 1998.
Scripture quotations are copyright © New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
These Reflections, ‘A Song for Lent – 40 Days in the West End’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2018