My Dance With the Groom

Life is full of "firsts". First steps, first words, first day of school, first job, first girl/boy friend, first kiss and the firsts go on and on. You'll always remember your "first" whatever. I've discovered that there truly is a first time for every thing and, indeed, the more "firsts" you have in life, the more life stays alive.

Last Saturday night I officiated a splendid and magnificent wedding in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. It was a marvelous night of "firsts". After a particularly moving ceremony and a lovely reception the wedding dance called us out of our shy reserved seats. Close to midnight, toward the end of the dance, without notice and without advance thought, I found myself having a "first".

Much earlier, I had asked the DJ to find and play Eric Clapton and Cream's "The Sunshine of Your Love". That song has been hanging around my internal karaoke for several weeks and I just wanted to hear it thump right out load. At long last, I heard the opening guitar riffs and my feet hauled my 53 year old body onto the dance floor.

Maybe some of you know what that "first" moment of a song and dance is like when you've been aching for some time to sing and dance to it.....there's something of a fog around you......its a transcendental/metaphysical moment.....or, something like that. Anyway, when I came to my senses, I realized I was pretty much out there, alone. Except for the groom......I'm doing the "Wa-too-see" (60's dance) with my clergy collar on....with a guy. A "first" was happening.

That "guy" was my son. The "first" was my dance with a groom. That might be a first in history, period. Pastor/father dancing with groom/son. What a night!

This morning I'm imagining the "first" blush of creation when God the Father said, "Let there be light!". And God the Son screemed, "OWW!! Dad, That's Amazing!" And God the Spirit picked up a Fender Strat, plugged it into a 5,000,000 watt Marshall stack and played the "first" edition of "The Sunshine of Your Love". And that's when God made a note to Self; "Rock music is Good.....p.s. Several thousand years from now, make sure Randy Dean gets a cool son named Jonathan to have the first father and son wedding dance in history."