Posting Date: July 8

In 587 BCE, Solomon’s Temple was burned to the ground. The walls of Jerusalem were torn down. The king was captured, and thousands of people — priests, musicians, families — were marched hundreds of miles east into exile in Babylon. They wouldn’t see home again for seventy years.

That’s not the opening line of a history book. That’s the opening image of something I’ve been pouring my heart into for months: an original stage musical and concept album called “Bring Us Home.”

I want to tell you the whole story behind it — and I want to do it the way I do everything, which is out loud, in real time, with all of you.

Where this started

I’ve always been drawn to stories where faith and history collide with real human emotion — the kind of stories where you don’t just learn what happened, you feel what it cost. The Babylonian exile has been sitting in my heart for a long time. It’s one of the most documented, most devastating, and honestly most relatable seasons in the entire Bible.

Think about it: an entire generation of people lost their home, their Temple, their identity — and had to figure out how to keep their faith alive in a foreign land that wanted them to forget who they were. Some of them never saw Jerusalem fall. Some of them were born in exile and never saw Jerusalem at all.

That second group is where this whole musical started for me.

The question that started it all

What if you grew up hearing your mother sing about a home you’ve never seen? What if everyone around you talks about Jerusalem — its gates, its Temple, its mornings full of doves — but all you’ve ever known is the riverbank in Babylon?

How do you ache for a home you’ve never seen?

That question became the heart of “Bring Us Home.” It’s the question my lead character, Aviva, asks. And honestly? It’s a question I think a lot of us carry in some form — whether it’s about heaven, about a calling, about a version of ourselves we haven’t become yet.

What “Bring Us Home” actually is

“Bring Us Home” is a full original stage musical — book, music, and lyrics — built around the Babylonian exile and the return to Jerusalem under Cyrus’s decree. It follows Aviva, a young woman born in captivity, along with her mother Miryam (who keeps the old songs alive), her grandfather Saba Elan (a temple harpist who hung his harp in the willows and swore he’d never play for Babylon), the prophet Daniel, the doomed king Belshazzar, and Nabu — a Babylonian court musician who becomes part of Aviva’s story in a way I can’t wait to tell you about.

It’s grounded in Psalm 137, the book of Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Ezra. Every song is original — but every song is rooted in real Scripture and real history.

Why I’m sharing this with you

Because this is the biggest creative project I’ve ever taken on, and I want you to be part of it from the very beginning. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to walk you through the whole thing — the theme, the characters, the research, the songs, and yes, even the messy, very human process of how it all actually got made (including some Suno AI moments that still make me laugh).

This is just the introduction. There’s so much more coming.

Come on this journey with me

If this story already has you curious, here’s how to stay close to it:

💬 Comment below — tell me: have you ever felt homesick for a place you’ve never been? I want to hear it.

📱 Follow me on Instagram and Facebook at @TheMelanieGrace for daily updates, character reveals, and behind-the-scenes looks.

💌 Sign up for my email list so you get the story behind every song before anyone else.

🎧 Follow me on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music — that way, the moment new music from “Bring Us Home” drops, it’s right there waiting for you.

This is just the beginning. Jerusalem fell in 587 BCE — but this story isn’t about the fall. It’s about what happens seventy years later, when a girl who’s never seen home has to decide whether to walk toward it.

More tomorrow. 🎵