.To pop.

..so father's day today over here in Melbourne (apparently only aussie have it today -shrug-)..today's speaker gave a really good speech..thought i'd share it with you all..if you have the patience, give this a little of your time..bear in mind it's my recollection so it might not be as powerful as it was for us..but wadeva, it's really quite lovely.

dad - this is for you.

maddy is a girl who owned every possible Christmas show dvds and vcds there are out there..she watched every one of them and realised one thing constant about all of them: every family in the shows have a tradition..be it singing christmas carols together, opening presents as a family, sitting down after dinner and playing chess, wadeva. She realised her family doesn't have one..and so 2 weeks before Christmas she run to her dad and asks him,"dad..why doesn't our family have a tradition like those in the movies?"

To that, her dad answers, "we've never had a family tradition, dear.."

Maddy thinks for a moment and asks," Can we have one then?"

Her dad looks at her and says, "okay..after dinner with everyone on Christmas eve we'll do one thing that we can do as a family every year, ok? but i'll only tell you what it is on Christmas eve."

Maddy waits and waits till Christmas eve and after dinner she excitedly goes to her dad and he takes her little hand and brings her to the living room..infront of all the guests and relatives, he goes down on one knee and says to her, "maddy, ever since mommy died..i've never had any one to dance with..and i think it'd be wonderful if you could have this one dance with me every year."

you see..Maddy has mommy's smile, and mommy's eyes..she even has the little bounce in her step the way her mom walked..

so this family tradition goes on for 10 years..and maddy's finally 18. she meets a boy and they start dating..one night, she tells her dad that she wants to get engaged to this boy. her dad tells her what every dad would say - "no, you're too young to get married..besides, you both are still studying and don't have a job..who's going to support the both of you?" she gets angry and goes to her room and calls the boy and tells him what her dad said..and the boy told her,"well, your gonna have to choose..it's either him or me in your life. why don't you come with me? we'll leave tonight..i've got a brother who stays in Houston and we can both stay with him.."
that night, maddy takes a few dollars from her savings and climbs out of the window into the boy's arms.

but the romance doesn't last long..four days later the brother tells both of them that he can't have them at his place..he tells the boy,"it's either she leaves or you both have to leave." the boy goes to maddy and he tells her, "my brother says we can't stay here..and i don't think i love you that way anymore..i guess that means you have to leave."

maddy leaves, broken. she has no money and nowhere to go..she goes to a halfway house and begs them to take her in. in there, she meets a friend called clarrise who tells her that she can earn quick cash by putting on a costume and dancing for some people..so maddy goes with clarrise and the manager gives her a costume and she dances for them.

..this goes on for eight months before one day, she's at the grocery store and she hears someone call her name. she turns around and see that it's the boy's brother..he asks her to go with him to his car and he pulls out a huge box and passes it to him. "Will you please please tell him to stop writing to my house?" the brother asks. maddy takes the box and opens it. in it are envelopes with her name written on it. maddy looks at the return address and realises it's her dad. she doesn't open any of them but instead looks at the dates on the stamps and she realised: her dad has written to her one letter every day. she brings the box to the dressing room which she puts on her costume to dance for people every night and leaves it there.

another four months go on when one day, she comes back and sees a letter on her dressing table in the room which she puts on her costume and dances for people. "a good-looking old man came in and put it there..he begged me to ask you to open it and read it," says clarisse..maddy opens it and drops the letter..

"maddy..will you have one last dance with me?"

that night..maddy goes back to her old home and puts her finger on the old door bell and pushes it..it barely rings before her dad is already at the door..a tear rolls down her cheek as she says,"i'm back, dad."

..i duno..somehow writing this wasn't as touching as when i heard it..but 2/3 of the congregation was tearing so it wasn't just me..haha. but point being- this story is the parallel of to that of the prodigal son. a father's love is one that is above all: it forgives, it waits and it is bigger than anything or anyone. and just like every father, our Father is also waiting for all of us to go back to Him..to those that once danced with Him and for some reason stopped and started dancing with other things..He is waiting for you. He's queueing up in line to dance with you..He's queueing up behind sex, behind drugs, behind alcohol, behind pornography, behind cheats, behind lies and behind false fronts. And now all those other things we choose to dance with have fallen away and He's still there, patiently waiting for us to come back to Him..

dad..i've never said this before..but one day i hope for you to dance with Him too. I love you..and happy fathers' day.

-lu