a witness

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word witness as - to be present at or have personal knowledge of; to take note of; observe; to testify to. I think this is significant when I think about how the following quote relates to our lives.

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Shall We Dance? Read about it here. My favorite and most redeeming moment in the movie is just this quote that Susan Sarandon's character (Beverly Clark) shares, which to me is very powerful, moving, and true. She simply says -

We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."

I know quite a few of my closest friends are not married, so I don't want to be like I'm holding up marriage as the end-all of being a witness to someone else's life. I think all my friends are different witnesses to my life just as I am to theirs. And, I think that idea of being a witness is an incredible idea - we all are witnesses to at least a handful of lives (I hope) everyday and what do we do with all those opportunities to minister, to be a friend, to share a lunch, to just give a genuine hello and ask a genuine "How are you?", to give a smile or encouraging word, etc....

But, there is something to be said about the fact that I live with my husband, in the same little apartment with three cats - he sees it ALL, even when I don't necessarily want him to. And, because of the vows we made to one another before God and several witnesses, we promised all those things she talks about - to care about everything. I'm very comforted in that someone has promised to come as close to me as any human person can and has allowed me to come close to him as well - to see the all the good, the bad, the ugly, the mundane, to share the excitement, the joy and the sorrow of our lives and to do it for the rest of our lives. My husband and I have become maybe each other's primary earthly witness to our own lives and that is an incredible thought to me! I have to admit that I also ocassionally have the feeling of wanting to hide because I realize that even when nobody else sees, more than likely (though not always), my husband will - and trust me, he sees a lot that noone else ever has and it ain't always pretty!

And, then, if I can take it one step further - I'm ultimately reminded when I think of this quote and travel down the thought process it takes me on that Christ has taken notice of all of us, came close to us and invited us to come close to Him. He is witness to our every thought and is and will be our witness before God of the faith we have and the lives we've lead, whether "good" or "bad." Now, that's something to think about!

Anyways....a very cool quote, I think. I'm really interested to see what anybody out there thinks about it.