After a long week of writing and too many dreary days, yesterday afternoon I made myself take a break from my manuscript to just go lay in the pool. I had my music playing on the Drew Holcomb station when a song came on that I almost clicked to pass over. Instead I ended up with tears streaming down my face.
Before I could even reach for my phone to forward to the next song, I became caught up in the words of the story. A story being sung from a dad about his daughter with words that could no better capture Grace.
The song is Dance with Me by Ryna Long. You may want to listen to it on YouTube for the full emotional effect, but I share with you the lyrics here:
“There at the table my daughter and I
Just ate the last of my mother’s pie
It’s the 5th of December and I act like I don’t know
Where it is she wants to go
She pushed back a chair and took my hand
Come into the living room and put on my favorite band
Dad it’s my birthday don’t miss your chance
Ask me to danceSo I said dance with me
Dance with me Jen
I’d love to feel you in my arms again
Dance with me, Dance with me JenI’d love to feel you in my arms again
Several years later my daughter and I
Can’t get along no matter how hard I try
She got herself a boyfriend who lives on down our road
His intentions, I don’t know
So on her birthday that same year
I went and put on that music she loved to hear
Said girl it’s your birthday don’t wanna miss my chance
And asked you to danceChorus
She turned her head and grabbed her coat
She didn’t look back and she slammed the door
Took a bus down to Texas with that boy down the road
Had no idea that he’d leave her there alone
She was drinking in her freedom and weathering the cold
Too stuborn to come back home
She finally got a job at a night time club
She was dancing on tables for men she didn’t love
She thought if my daddy could see me now
He’d never take me back – no way, no how
And how she longed to hear him sayDance with me, Dance with me Jen
I’d love to feel you in my arms again
Dance with me, Dance with me Jen
I’d love to feel you in my arms againFound out from her boyfriend who lived down the road
He left her in Texas and he moved back home
He had her address and I drove all night long
Just to fine that she was gone
It was 10 in the morning when I found out what she did
Left a note at the club, got in my car and drove home again
When she read it she cried alone
Hopped a bus and headed home
It was that note it read:Dance with me
Dance with me Jen
I’d love to feel you in my arms again”
This is The Grace God bestows on His children! Like this daughter, there is nothing we do to earn or deserve His love, and there is nothing we can do to lose it. He gives it freely, not because of who we are but because of how great He is. This is what makes grace so amazing! When we begin to get grace like this I don’t think we can help but be moved – moved to worship Him more and moved toward others in compassion.
