Be a Witness

Dear Christa—

In the movie Shall We Dance? the wife tells the private investigator whom she’s hired, that people get married because “they want a witness,” someone who will take note of them in this all too short breath of life. I don’t know who wrote the script for the movie, but that line settled on me. I’ve heard all kinds of reasons for getting married—some reasonable, some stupid—but I think that one holds a lot of truth.

Was that what Adam was lacking in a perfect garden, in a perfect world, among all creation—before Eve? Is that the aloneness amidst the crowds? The pain of rolling over in bed when no one’s there? A witness?

It does not matter what season of life we’re in. All seasons find us busy. Babies and little children—teenagers and college students—careers and ministries—and before we know it, we can live wanting when everything we crave is before our eyes. We just don’t see it.

Have you taken note lately? In doing all the things you’re supposed to do, have you forgotten to be a witness? It’s so easy to do. Believe me, I know. I have felt the pain. I’ve been guilty. Haven’t you?

If we desire to live intentionally—if we crave to live our breath of life with purpose, we must be the witness in the life of the one we’re coveted to. And, if each stands as a witness to the other, we will feel like our seemingly insignificant role in the grand story of the ages is significant after all.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph. 2:10