Several weeks before Easter, this question was posted in a blog: “When I wake up on Resurrection Sunday morning, how will I be different?”

Were you different when you woke up on Easter? Did you do anything to prepare yourself to be different on Easter Sunday?

I felt led by the Holy Spirit to learn John 17 and that was a life changing discipline for me. Jesus is praying before he goes to the garden where he knows he will be betrayed by one of his own, Judas. His prayer is a conversation with his Father, first for himself, then for the disciples, then for those who will come to believe that he was sent to earth by his Father.

John 17: 22-24 (NIV) tells us: “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

As I was learning those words by heart, I was also spending time at an assisted living facility and often heard a favorite song of many of the residents, recorded by Anne Murray, “Could I Have This Dance?”

Three mornings in a row I woke up with that song in my mind. The words to the chorus are:

“Could I have this dance for the rest of my life, Would you be my partner every night, When we’re together it feels so right, Could I have this dance for the rest of my life.”

Thinking about that song, reminded me of a new version of the poem familiar to many, “Footprints in the Sand.” In this new version, again in a dream, after many miles, there are zigzags of footprints all over the place, stops, starts and then, they are again one.

The person in the dream asked Jesus if there was a regression in their walk with him. There was a pause, then with a smile the Lord answered, “You didn’t know? It was then that we danced!”

The combination of the words from John 17, hearing that song and praying for guidance in writing this article, I believe I received a message for me, but also for you. Jesus is beckoning us, is wooing us (I love that word) to be one with Him in “the dance” to move as one with him. I believe he gave new words (shown here in italics and bold print) to that song: “Could I have this dance for the rest of your life, Would you be my partner day and night, When we’re together it is so right, Could I have this dance for the rest of your life.”

Jesus is calling us to allow his prayer to come to pass, that we that believe in him are all one as we pray together for our nation and our world.