A Pastor’s Perspective

“Dance With Cinderella” by Mike Hill, pastor of Calvary Chapel Aberdeen (mjhill@ida.net)

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“I’ll dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms…”  These words form the chorus of the current hit by Steven Curtis Chapman.  He reluctantly completes the last part with “when the clock strikes midnight…she’ll be gone.”

When I first heard this song, I thought it was catchy and sentimental.  But I was deeply touched when I discovered the background of Chapman’s inspiration.  One evening, it was getting late, and the pressure of an early morning deadline bore down on his nerves.  He still had work to do before daybreak.  Chapman attempted to rush through the evening’s ritual of helping his girls take their baths, but when he turned around to put them into the bath, they were gone. His girls burst back into the bathroom dressed up like Cinderellas and Snow White.  “Daddy!  Daddy!  Will you dance with me?!!”  When he hurried them to bed, they asked for a story.  He glowingly shared, “There were three girls who needed to go to bed and get some sleep.  The end.”  Chapman scurried off into his office.  As he sat at his desk it suddenly dawned on him that he had missed a precious opportunity with his girls.  Songs normally take Stephen Curtis Chapman weeks….even months to write.  But he wrote this song in one night.

Tragically, the clock has already struck midnight for his five-year-old daughter, Maria.  Last May, Chapman’s teenaged son, Will, pulled up into the driveway and little Maria was so excited to see Will that she ran right into the path of the car. 

As Steven Curtis Chapman was frantically speeding off to the hospital with little Maria’s lifeless body, he yelled out to his son, “Will Franklin, your father loves you!”  Chapman shared the reason he said this to his son in an interview on Good Morning America.  “I had a deep concern not to lose two children at the result of this.”  The interviewer describes the family as closer than ever before. 

During the interview, Chapman also disclosed the source of strength in coming to terms with their devastating loss.  “As we grieve, we talk a lot and hold onto hope.  Hope is what has kept us breathing and alive.  We are anchored to hope.”

With tear-filled eyes and a tender voice, Chapman’s wife poignantly shared, “I said as we talked,      somewhat coldly ‘I don’t care whose lives are touched by this story and whose lives are changed or what good comes of it.’  With the heart of a  mom I want Maria back, and that’s what I want people to know that I want Maria back…But because I know that she is completely whole and completely okay because of my faith I’m going to see her again…”

What can we learn from this true story?  Dance with your Cinderellas now!  You never know when the clock will strike midnight (Psalm 90:10-12). 

Another reminder is that God’s comfort is available to us through Christ in any crisis…even in the midst of the most severe tragedy. God is there (2Corinthians 1:3-7).  Turn to Him with your whole heart.  Oh, and, don’t forget about the anchor for our souls.  Hope (1Thessalonians 4:13-18; Hebrews 6:19).

“I’m gonna dance with Maria again I’m absolutely sure of that…”