The Big Dance

In my hometown of Grenada, MS, we didn’t really have proms. There was an organization known as the “Cotillion” that was made up of the young girls in our small community who had reached a certain age, perhaps 15 or 16. There would be a Cotillion dance about twice a year and it fell to the girls to ask the boys to the dance. I suspect that the whole event was really a way to perpetuate the segregation of our community, but it might have also been a way to keep certain “elements” from attending. Whatever the reason, it was always a stressful time for me. I wasn’t much of a catch standing at 6’ 4” and weighing 140 pounds, unless you needed a light bulb changed. Consequently, the invitations to the big dance weren’t exactly filling my mailbox.

One year, though, everything changed. A pretty girl who lived a couple of blocks from me asked me to the dance. Nancy (we’ll call her) was a year younger than me and she had always had my eye but I knew that we were operating out of two different leagues. I never gave the chances of us going out much thought. Nancy had been dating a friend of mine, Al, for a couple of years but had recently broken up. Now, nobody wants to be the rebound guy but when the girl is that dang pretty most principles go flying out the window. I waved goodbye to mine and gleefully accepted the invitation. Besides, her mother thought I was the best kid in Grenada and I had high hopes she might have some influence that would increase my future chances.
Have you ever tried to buy a suit for a kid that looks like a drinking straw? My mom had, many times, and she knew there would be nothing in small town Mississippi so we headed to Memphis. Twelve hours, and six big and tall stores later, we headed south to Grenada with suit in hand. It had been a painful endeavor for both of us but the chance to dance with Nancy was well worth enduring Mom’s grimaces. Did I say dance? That might be an exaggeration that is best not described in any great detail. Feet moved and hands waved. Enough said.
The big night arrived. I pulled into Nancy’s driveway in my 1962 Ford Galaxy with vinyl seats, rubber mats and AM radio. Nancy’s mom greeted me at the door with a big hug and a smile and then from around the corner came a sight to behold. Nancy appeared and she had to be the prettiest I had ever seen her. “Wow!” I thought. I handed her the orchid corsage that perfectly matched her gown which I had called and gotten the color of from her mom a week earlier. Nancy’s mom pinned it on, Kodak flash cubes popped and then we were off to the Cotillion.
The evening started well. A few fast dances, one slow dance, a glass of punch and we sat for a bit. Then “he” came over, Al that is. “Mind if Nancy and I dance?” he said. I didn’t mind. After all, she was my date. She had come with me. What’s the harm? Well, I found out. Two hours and too many glasses of punch later Nancy comes over to me. Al is standing a safe distance away. “Do you mind if Al takes me home?” “No, that’s fine.” I said as I pushed that giant lump in my throat back down to wherever it had come from. I left. Crushed. Betrayed.

If you are waiting for a happy ending, there isn’t one. But there was a lesson learned. My youth minister had an expression: “People will let you down, always.” Then he would say, “But God never will.” He was right. Though we may be crushed or feel betrayed, God always desires our good. He will never leave us or forsake us. He is ahead of us, above us, below us, behind us. God is working, always working God’s grace in our lives. Thanks be to God who dances the day we are born and celebrates our lives with us, even through the hard times.


. . . . for he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?’ Hebrews 13

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8