When she was 6, our Anna fell in love with dance. She took a ballet/tap combination class
every Tuesday...we called it “Tutu Tuesday." I knew how much Anna loved it when she was sick one weekend and told me, “I have to get better by Tuesday so
I can go to dance.”
Four months
after Anna first put on her ballet slippers, her grandfather died. There was no warning, no time to even try to try to get ready. “Papa Lonn” was young, healthy, and vibrant. His
death was an utter shock. In one
terrible moment, my husband lost his dad, best friend, business mentor,
confidante, wood-cutting partner, fellow college sports enthusiast, and earthly
model of Abba—God as “daddy.”
Our family
was completely unprepared for the season of grief we were thrown into. Blindly, we started into the year of firsts without Lonn.
Anna’s dance recital, it turned out, would take place on Father’s Day Eve: the
night before my husband’s first Father’s Day without his dad. I began to dread a
weekend we would simply get through, would merely survive.
But then: I
started asking God to redeem the day. I asked Him to make something of it beyond what it
would be without His intervention. I asked Him to make it more than just a day
we would grit our way through.
Redemption
carries with it the idea of something being held captive, of a price being paid
for the release of someone imprisoned. The prisoner is powerless to secure his
own freedom, and his redeemer rescues him by covering the cost.
I asked God
to release my husband’s Father’s Day—and Anna’s recital day—from sorrow, loss,
grief, and dread. I asked Jehovah to pay the price and free the day to be
glorious.
On Father’s
Day Eve, my husband, his mom, my parents, Anna’s big sister, and I took over a
row in the auditorium.
We did not know to expect the worship experience we saw and took part
in that night. It was a tapestry of music and movement. We watched Anna’s class come on
stage. In their electric-blue tutus, they had the audience before they'd even started
dancing.
We beamed
proudly as Anna steadily performed each movement. At the end of the night, she was
awarded a scholarship we had no idea was coming, and we all gasped in surprised
delight. It was glorious.
The day
after the recital, we celebrated Father’s Day without Lonn. I knew God had
said yes to my prayer: He had redeemed the day. He had bought it back from
mourning and had purchased it for dancing. Abba had given a gift to my husband,
who had lost his earthly daddy but still found joy in the careful steps of a
little girl in a blue tutu.
"And they sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God' "(Revelation 5:9).
**************
Do you have something you need God to
redeem? If you do, there is a Redeemer for it—the LORD
of hosts, the Almighty! Ask Him to buy
whatever it is back from whatever is holding it captive and make it more than
it can be without Him.
like dancing.
