The Last Dance

Are you one of those folks who eats dessert first?  Or do you save the best for last?  A couple of Sundays ago Jesus turned water into wine and it turned out to be the very BEST wine imaginable.  Not usually saved for the last because people don't necessarily appreciate it when they've had a lot to drink already and they're snockered.

Every time the Eucharist is celebrated, the wine tastes like the very best to me. 

Last things are sometimes so precious they move us to tears.  Other times we feel weary of them and barely pay attention:  like the last snowfall off the season, when you've been shoveling several feet of it every month for 4 months...say, in upstate New York.  They had 19 inches in Nebraska recently.  Wow.  Happily the snow is up in the hills and not right outside my window.  It makes the view beautiful, without all the hard work!

The baby of the family often gets special treatment and the other kids feel she or he is spoiled.  But that last child and all of that child's milestones must take on such poignant significance when parents know they will have no more children. 

On Sunday a couple stood up for a blessing at church.  They've been married for 44 years!!!  How many things they've faced together.  How many celebrations.  How much love.  May they know how deeply they are loved and held by God, always!

Now take me...yes, I'm finally getting to the point.  I've fallen deeply and with God's help, irrevocably in love.  I've been in love before.  And each relationship has been special.  And in each relationship I've learned and grown and loved and changed and become more of my real self.  But this I believe is the last time I will be in love.  This one is for keeps.  There's a quality to the love; a mutuality; a great delight that speaks of the Eternal to me.  And the Eternal is the central focus of my life.  There are issues, and this early in our relationship, we still get scared at times.  I've never noticed how close to "sacred", "scared" is.  Fear can drive wedges and pull us apart.  But if we can be tender both with ourselves and each other in that scared place, it transforms into a sacred place.  Whoosh!  Magical thinking?  No, I think not.  We are careful to be honest and do the hard work of honoring both our feelings and our good common sense.  We are careful to keep the other person's best interests in mind, and in so doing, decisions that are in both of our best interests, end up delighting God.  And God comes to us, meets us there when we're willing to be vulnerable, and to protect each other's vulnerability.

I've never really learned to dance.  I sometimes dream about it.  But that last, slow dance on the dance floor seems so romantic.  It is quiet; consists of few steps; sometimes almost just a gentle rocking to the music and usually, the partner chosen for that last dance, is the really special one, the one that fits us, the one who knows us.  The one who loves us. 

"Save the Last Dance for me!"  Spirit whispers.  The music starts, the stars themselves are singing:  And then She Herself appears within the other and captures your heart.  And it all makes sense in that last dance.