Have you ever had an ah-ha moment where pieces of the puzzle just fit together, but also that those two pieces are from two completely different puzzles? Yeah, that is a good way to explain what you are about to read. I also need to make a few disclaimers before I go on. If you don’t find Stranger Things interesting or you haven’t watched the new season yet, you may want to wait or not read the rest of this blog because “spoiler alert” some of the details from the latest season will be a main part of my writing today. I do not want to be the reason this show is ruined for someone, so go watch it and come back to read afterward. Now if you are not a fan, no hate here. To be honest, when the new season came out, my husband and I watched the first episode and I was like “I’m out” this is too much and too intense. We talked to some friends who because we said we weren’t going to watch it spoiled some of the main parts. After that, we decided to finish this season because now it logically made sense to me, and I loved it! 

So one piece of the puzzle is the latest season of Stranger Things, which I will get to why that is in just a little bit, and the other is a book I am currently reading. The book is “Find your place” (locating your calling through your gifts, passions, and story) by Rob Wegner and Brian Phipps. It is a great book about finding the gifts and passions that God has placed on you to be able to go out and reach those around you by sharing your story. I’m about halfway through the book and the author is writing about David.  David was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse, a shepherd, a musician, and later a King. You might know him best for taking down Goliath with his sling. We love to use that story to celebrate the underdogs and this book poses the question “what is your sling?”. They go on to say, “You may not be aware of it, but what you do well–your skills at work or a particular set of gifts you use in a hobby–that’s your sling.” I found this really interesting, but then they continued on talking about how David was a musician who played the harp. Then they asked, “What is your harp?”. No, they are not asking you if you play a musical instrument they stated that “the harp is a spiritually empowered gift that when you use that specific gift it has a supernatural impact on the hearts, minds, and souls of other people.” 

Did you know that music therapy was in the Bible? In 1 Samuel 16:14-23, we see King Saul being tormented by an evil spirit. The people around Saul gave the suggestion to find a good musician to play soothing music on the harp. They recommended David because they knew he was a talented harp player, a brave warrior, and that the Lord was with him. Saul sent word to Jesse, David’s father, and David became basically a music therapist for King Saul. In verse 23 it says, “David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away.” We don’t know how this played out exactly but I think the thing we can realize and the point the authors were trying to make is that when David played the harp it had an effect beyond the natural. Something supernatural happened to drive the demons away from tormenting Saul. I had never grasped this idea before and when it hit me, that was the moment the pieces from two different puzzles started fitting together. 

Ok, stay with me here as we walk this journey of my thought process together. In the latest season of Stranger Things, we see Vecna who lives in the upside down (The Upside Down is an alternate dimension existing in parallel to the human world.) entering the thoughts and minds of people in the human world. Max Mayfield is one of the minds that he infiltrates. She has a lot of past trauma that at times can consume her mind. Once her friends find out that Vecna is tormenting her thoughts they do everything they can to figure out how to beat this evil thing. At the last possible second, because it wouldn’t be a suspenseful show if it happened any other time, they find a solution that can pull her away from his grip. It’s music. Tell me I’m not the only one who is now piecing this together. 

David played the harp and when his natural gifts were combined with God, the music he produces was powerful enough to drive out demons. I know for me music has played a huge part in my life. Music has emotions and the power to put you in a dark place that will continue to drag you down but it also has a way of bringing you out of the dark with just the right song. You see in Stranger Things Max’s favorite song is “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, a total 80’s jam. When her friends figure out that music can pull her out of Vecna’s grip, Dustin grabs his cassette player and cassette of none other than Max’s favorite song. He puts the headphones on her and hits play. We see Max in the upside down first hearing the song and then seeing a way out of the darkness into the light, where her friends were. I’m not saying that Stranger Things is super spiritual I can just see some correlations between what I watched and scripture and it’s not just the music part. I’m going to take it a step further, so hold on to your hats. I really think that some of the writers have to have some sort of biblical background. At least enough to bring to life images that scripture presents. 

As we continued on in season 4 we find out the truth of who Vecna really is and we notice we’ve seen this character before just in a different form. He’s in all white. An orderly working in the lab until he believes he is more powerful than the Doctor running the Lab and everyone else. You go on to see he deceives Eleven to take out the chip in his neck which allows him to have his powers back. Once this happens all “hell” breaks loose. When Eleven sees what he has done she uses her powers to blast him into this other dimension, the upside down, and he falls into this dark realm where we see him wreak havoc on the human world through people’s minds. Does this sound familiar? When we picture what an angel would be like typically we imagine them in all white with a glow around them, right? And what angel do we know from scripture that wanted to be more powerful than God? Satan. Which in turn caused him to fall from the heavens into the abyss. Luke 10:18 “Jesus replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.’” Isaiah 14 & Ezekiel 28 also speak of when Satan was kicked out of heaven. In John 10:10 it says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy”. That thief is Satan and he roams around seeing who he can twist the words of, create inner doubt, and ultimately completely destroy. Sounds a lot like the mind games that Vecna played when he had a chokehold on someone. 

We may have to wait until 2024 to see the finale of Stranger Things but we know how the bible end and who will win in the end! That gives us hope for the future even when we can’t always see why different pieces of the puzzle fit together, we know with God anything is possible. Even relating Stranger Things to scripture. 😉 

Always know I am available to pray with you or just be someone to talk to when life gets hard. E-mail me at megan@churchanywhere.us if you need prayer! 

Talk to you soon!