The surprise that lit up the sky

Throw your mind back to the beginning of this year- before the April 13th concert, before acappella regionals competition, and even before the fire music video- all the way back to February 2024. It was at this time, that a plan, a very secret plan, was hatched.

Some back story first: one of the founders of J209, Kristin H., had confided in J209 about a dream she had- one that truly changed her life. The dream began as a normal, wintry day shopping for groceries, when suddenly, a man took her coat.

Kristin, being a kind person, simply asked for her coat back, but when the man refused, she became angry. The dream took her far and wide as she chased this man for her coat back. Eventually, Kristin found herself and the man in the desert- surrounded by nothing but miles of sand-dunes in every direction.

By this point, both she and the man had collapsed from exhaustion over fighting for this coat. Kristin looked over at the man, and realized that she had reached the point of so much anger that either she would die to get the coat back, or he would. And she couldn’t allow herself to have his death on her conscience.

So she walked away, leaving the coat behind.

Only when Kristin was miles from the man with the coat did she realize she was going to die. She had no coat, and no other way to stay warm as the desert temperature plummeted.

Despairing as she felt, Kristin allowed the weight of this knowledge settle in her heart, but then- she felt something urging her to look up.

When she did, Kristin saw the sky alight with stars and colors she had never seen before. She felt a flood of love from her Heavenly Father, and understood that He was proud of her for deciding to leave her anger behind. He was excited to see her so He could hold her in His arms again.

As Kristin told us this dream, her voice choked with emotion, and she told us that she was taught by the Spirit that the coat represented the thing that was keeping her from embracing God’s love, and she needed to let it go.

Immediately after sharing this story with us, Kristin shared the song Light Up the Sky by “The Afters”; she told us that every time she heard this song, it reminded her of that dream, and the all-consuming love she felt from her Heavenly Father.

As we listened to this amazing dream and the impact it had on her, we instantly knew we needed to do something to commemorate this incredible experience, both out of love for Kristin, and out of love for our God.

So it was then that we decided we would arrange a cover of Kristin’s song: Light Up the Sky.

And we’d do it as a surprise.

—Check out the following blog post to see how we pulled it off!!—