Many of you may have already heard the news, but for those of you who haven't late yesterday afternoon Maria Chapman, the youngest daughter of Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman died after suffering a tragic vehicle accident. Her brother was driving down the driveway of their home and did not see her. She was taken by Life Flight to Vanderbilt Hospital but unfortunately her injuries were too severe.
While our hearts are surely breaking for them, during this time of extreme grief, let us not forget to pray for her older brother as we pray for the family. While the loss of a family member, especially a young child is a terrible burden to bare, it cannot compare to the unimaginable ache he will be shouldering during this coming season in his life. He will need his family and friends more than he has ever needed them at any other time in his life. Pray for the family, they need to be born up during their grief, but pray double for their son.
Many of us have been greatly touched by the third track off of his latest album, "This Moment", entitled "Cinderella". In fact, as many of you can easily guess, it was the final motivation to get me to start putting my thoughts on paper concerning the father-daughter relationship dynamic. If you are a Steven Curtis Chapman fan and have dug deeper into this song you have discovered that his youngest daughters, Stevie Joy and Maria were the inspiration for this song. He tells the story of his taking a break from songwriting to get them ready for bed. He is desperately trying to hurry up and give them a bath and they are sneaking off to dress up in their princess costumes (you have to have little princesses in your lives to understand this because in this day most little girls with a doting king for a daddy have at least one, if not more, Disney princess costume in their dress up collection) because they have to get ready for the ball. What they wanted was for daddy to play with them. This goes on through the entire bedtime routine. He is trying to hurry them up to bed, so he can get back to work and they are trying their best to get him to "play with us daddy!" He is reminded of how fast the years went by with his oldest daughter, who is now grown and on her own, and thus came the inspiration for such a beautiful song.
Steven Curtis Chapman has definitely invested much into the lives of so many in immeasurable ways and indirectly by their willingness to share their husband and father with us for often unfair extended periods of time, his family has sacrificed to invest in our lives as well. As a result we feel connected to them and because of this we have shared in the joy of their family as it has expanded through adoption, in recent years. And, we have also caught their enthusiasm to spread their passion for adoption to other Christian families across the United States. Now, our hearts equally are broken for them during this time of grief and heartache. But, we can take comfort in this fact because the Chapmans took Maria and made her a part of their family she came to know Jesus and because of that in the midst of a horrible tragedy she received an invitation to the grandest ball of them all with a request to dance with the Prince of Peace and the King of kings.
Every little girl dreams of being swept away by a handsome prince, but none ever imagines that they would be standing there one moment, without a care in the world, and the next they would be swept away by the Prince by which all other will be judged and found wanting.
Goodbye Maria. You are safe in the arms of Jesus. We will be praying for your family and your brother. We will join you soon.
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