Cinderella

Every time I hear Steven Curtis Chapman's song Cinderella, I think about the Chapmans loss of Maria and how all to quickly she was gone. I use to cry when I read deathspace which was a website that linked newspaper articles on the deaths of people to those people's myspace pages.

I don't know how many articles I read about teens dying in car accidents. It drove home just how heavy, how big, how dangerous cars are and how we take the power for granted. I cried as I read about three seniors and one college frosh dying, the cops believed because they were speeding home to make it in time for curfew. I'll be sure to tell TTT, their safety, them making it home in one piece is more important than them getting home minutes after curfew.

It was so strange to go on a web page of this sixteen-year-old who will never grow older. Will never realize her dreams to get married and have children or even to simply go to college. Forever on the myspace page she remains a junior in high school who is a cheerleader, standing next to the new car she got that she will ultimately die in. And as the years pass, the song she loved so much will become more and more dated, yet always put you firmly back in the year and the time when she could breathe the air and smell flowers.

Oh the unimaginable pain of losing a child. There are things we will never understand, though I can say uh, thanks Adam and Eve, but through it all "Ani hu ha’Elohim" (above all else, there is God.)




She spins and she sways
To whatever song plays
Without a care in the world
And I'm sitting here wearing
The weight of the world on my shoulders

It's been a long day
And there's still work to do
She's pulling at me
Saying "Dad, I need you

There's a ball at the castle
And I've been invited
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone...

She says he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed
She wants to know if I approve of the dress
She says, "Dad, the prom is just one week away
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone

She will be gone

Well, she came home today with a ring on her hand
Just glowing and telling us all they had planned
She says, "Dad, the wedding's still six months away
But I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone