Shall We Dance?
February 22nd, 2005 at 11:03 am by Dee O'Neil Andrews
If you read Saturday’s thoughts, you know they had to do with dancing. Dancing with Jesus.
That’s a joyful thought.
So is the thought of dancing with our mates. How often to we do that, anyway? Probably not enough. Well, maybe one way to think of it is that there are many kinds of dances and marriage itself is a form of dance. It twists and turns, moves forward and backward, spins around and around.
We watched the movie "Shall We Dance" the other night and I was struck by what the wife’s character had to say about marriage. She was saying that the reason she married was not primarily because she was a romantic or had found some great love, but because she had found someone who was willing to be a "witness" to her life.
That’s profound, when you stop and think about it. The idea that there is one particular individual soul in this vast universe who is willing - even eager - to share in our life and to proclaim before God and all other men that this one person matters so much to me that I want to witness to her life and be with her for as long as she lives. I want to dance with her, and her alone, until the day she dies.
She really matters. Her life is important. Her life is worth all of the effort I can expend from now until the day I die. I will be there for her through all of the vagaries of life. I will shout with joy for her in all of her great, even small, triumphs and will immerse myself in sorrow for her when tragedy touches her heart. I will be there through thick and thin, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health and I will proudly and gladly do so.
How many people in the world are willing to do all of those things today? They involve a lot of sacrifice and hard work on the part of both partners. Lots of practice. Years of work. Some of us are lucky and have found someone willing to tackle that difficult dance of marriage with us. And, wow - the results are worth all of the effort. So, even after all these years, all I can say is, "Shall we dance?"