God’s Amazing Grace

   A firm believer in the view that the age of chivalry is not yet past, I suppose I shouldn’t have continued listening to a conversation that, from where I was standing, I couldn’t help overhearing. But something kept me rooted to the spot. As you will hear, I’m very glad it did.

   “Look, I know you mean well, but I just won’t do it. I will come with you to every lesson so that I can go on helping you practice, but I will not - will not - join the class. I am beyond being the original Plain Jane, no man is going to want to dance with me, and I’m just not going to put myself in the embarrassing position of being a wallflower week after week. Why God made two sisters so different I don’t know, but that’s the reality of it. I will forever be in your shadow and, as far as I am concerned, that’s that.”

   “Alright, Helen, I won’t ask you again, even if I do think what you say about the way you look is quite wrong. When you smile, you light up the whole room, and I really do appreciate the help you give me when we practice because, whether leading or following, you are so, so helpful.

   “But what really worries me, Helen, is when you question why God would or would not do something. We know from the Bible we cannot understand some of the things God does; that His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways His ways, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts. We also know that God created us in His own image and that when He saw everything that He had made it was very good. So shouldn’t we simply, gratefully and unquestioningly take Him at His word and continue on our way rejoicing?

   “I don’t know why, after all God did for them, the Israelites, and especially Aaron, were so quick to make a golden calf to worship when Moses had only been gone for forty days. I don’t know why Samson submitted to the wiles of Delilah after the lesson I would have thought he learnt when his wife had earlier forced him to give her the answer to a riddle. To my simple mind, the Israelites should have been eternally grateful to God for delivering them from the ordeal they suffered at the hands of the Egyptians, while Samson should have remembered that once bitten, twice shy. But those things didn’t happen because God had other plans. Which reminds me, the Bible also tells us that God knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and future. Anyway, I have to go now. Thanks again for coming.”

   This was the conversation I overhead as we all waited for the dance instructor to start our first lesson. I had joined the class because I was full of admiration for a couple I had often seen dancing so beautifully together on Saturday evenings when I visited a nearby shopping center that featured live music at weekends. I wanted to see if I could learn to dance as well as they did; besides, it looked like a fun and entertaining way to get some exercise.

   To say I enjoyed the seven-week class would be a gross understatement: I truly loved every minute of it. While I didn’t exactly have two left feet, I had to practice all the more to keep up with the rest of the class. At the same time, I clearly didn’t have the serious competitiveness of some of the others; thus I felt I was having infinitely more fun and enjoyment than just about everyone else. But don’t get me wrong: I gave of my absolute best.

   I went secretly (I hope) to practice dances on the other side of town, even putting together a complete routine of my own that included every move we were taught to help me remember them all. And still my ambitions were no higher than being able to emulate the weekend couple I admired.

   As the class progressed, my sense of fun and enjoyment increased in direct proportion to the serious competitiveness of most of the others, especially the men. Perhaps their fear of putting a foot wrong – literally – prevented their doing what it seemed to me their partners liked best. This was being treated like a lady, being made to feel really good about themselves, and sharing if not actually being given the limelight, all while having a wonderful time looking and feeling their absolute best. In consequence I played this card to the hilt until I felt my sense of fun and enjoyment was reciprocated by just about every partner with whom I had the pleasure of dancing.

   At the interval in our final class the instructor made a surprise announcement. He told us, as well as those many members of our families and friends we had been allowed to invite to the exhibition we were to give shortly, that some of us had done so well he proposed entering them in a forthcoming competition. In upholding the well-established name of his school, only the best would be chosen and we were not to be disappointed if, this time around, our names were omitted. He then said he would read out the names of the men he had selected in alphabetical order. To my great surprise my name was included.

   He then made an even more surprising announcement: the men, as leaders, would be invited to choose their partners. The ladies could decline an invitation and he would have the final say, but since we had all had the opportunity to dance with every member of the class many times over during the past seven weeks, we should be able to choose for ourselves, the partner with whom we felt we had the best chance of winning an important competition. This time the names of the men would be chosen at random by the ladies picking them out of a hat.

   The instructor, who was somewhat of a showman in his way, had given these proceedings quite a build up, but now he turned the mounting excitement up a notch, even playing the accompanying music that much louder. With a flourish, he offered the hat to the first lady in line: incredibly the name that was drawn was mine. I don’t think even the instructor could have anticipated what happened next.

   Playing to the gallery, the ladies squealed with delight, preened themselves coquettishly and generally showed their delight at the prospect of being chosen as a partner by one whose avowed intent was to prove that the age of chivalry was not yet past.

   As I approached the line, I bowed towards the first lady, took her hand gently in mine, kissed her hand softly, raised it up, spun her round gracefully, and bowed again. This I did to each lady in turn, but when I got to the end of the line, I kept on going until I was standing directly in front of Helen. She was surrounded by a great many people including, as I found out later, her parents, brothers and sisters. I greeted her exactly as I had done the others, except that, instead of a final bow, I lifted her to her feet and went directly into the routine on which I had practiced long and hard for such a time as this. I completed the routine three times, all the rehearsing I had done, and the practicing Helen must have done with her sister, paying off to perfection.

   With each routine, a new recollection from the scriptures came to mind. The first, seeing Helen’s smile lighting up the whole room, was when the Lord said not to look on someone’s countenance or their height, because God does not see as we do, for we look on the outward appearance whereas the Lord looks on the heart. The second reminds us there is a time to every purpose, including a time to dance. The third, looking at Helen as the very personification of style and grace, and, yes, unrestrained happiness, was to know that God will not just go on loving her, He will bless and watch over her all her life.

   The audience, applauding enthusiastically throughout, leapt to their feet as Helen and I concluded our performance, I with a courtly bow and Helen with the most beautiful curtsey.

   As the applause continued to ring out, the instructor came over to us, wagging his finger at us mischievously. “You realize what a spot you’ve put me in, don’t you, and how much hard work we’re all going to have to do if you’re to have any chance of winning that competition?”

   “We just did,” replied Helen, smiling broadly and giving my hand a gentle squeeze. It was an unforgettable moment in which she stepped out of the shadow of her sister and into the light of God’s amazing grace.

For further reading: Isaiah 40:28; 55:8-9; Genesis 1:27; 1:31; Exodus 32:4; Judges 16:6-21; 14:12-19; Exodus 5: 6-12; Jeremiah 29:11; 1 Samuel 16:7; Ecclesiastes 3:1-4; Deuteronomy 7:13