The Two-Word Question

The Two-Word Question

When Steve and I moved into our little Inglewood neighborhood in East Nashville, TN in 1977, we had no idea what the Lord had prepared for us. All around our little house, built in the early 1950’s, lived the best people in the whole world.  One of those exceptional people was Mary Williams.  She lived three doors down from us.  Although she passed away several years ago, I think about her very often.

Mary had been a widow for quite a few years when we met her.  When our children came along, they too grew to love her.  They enjoyed going down to see her and would often take her flowers (which they had picked from her carefully manicured flower garden…I don’t think she liked that…but she never complained.)

One evening while Mary was at our house eating dinner with us, Steve asked her, “Mary, what do you miss most about John?”  She paused for a moment and seemed pleasantly lost in her thoughts. Then she smiled as she said, “Oh…that’s easy!  John used to ask me a little two-word question that I truly loved to hear. It let me know how much he loved me.  I can’t tell you how much I miss hearing those two little words.”

Of course we were totally curious about what the two-word question was that meant so much to Mary and when she told us, we both instantly knew that God had spoken encouragement into our marriage through our widowed neighbor. While I was moved by hearing about John’s simple, yet deeply loving question, Steve was especially impacted by it. He heard some great advice about how, with two simple words, a husband can show his wife how much he cares for her.

Nearly twenty-five years later while talking again about Mary’s visit that evening and what she had said about John, Steve realized what a great song idea it was. That’s when the song featured in this post was born.

I hope this lyrical tribute to John’s question, as shared by his sweet Mary, will mean as much to you as it does to us.  Someday we’ll get to tell Mary again how much we appreciated her friendship and we’ll also get to personally thank John for the influence he had on our marriage.

What If?

Mary said, “There’s a lot of things I’ve missed about John

In these fifteen years since he’s been gone

Lord knows it’s a mighty long list, if I had to choose just one

He used to ask a question, sometimes I hear it when I’m all alone”

 

“He’d say..

‘What if… we go out to dinner tonight?

What if, we take a walk in the full moon light?

What if we go take in a movie, just me and my best friend?’

Oh how I wish, I could ‘What if?’

With John…one more time again”

 

She said, “It’s funny how a question

Can hold so many answers…more than I’d ever need

I never had to wonder, I never had to ask did he care about me

I feel sad for the women who never knew a man who understood like mine

That love is a diamond and if you’re going have it you gotta to spend some time”

 

“He’d say, ‘What if, we go out to dinner tonight?

What if, we take a walk in the full moon light?

What if we take a ride on the Harley, just you and me in the wind?’

Oh how I wish, I could ‘What if?’

With John…one more time again”

 

“He’d say, ‘What if, we go out to dinner tonight?

What if, we take a walk in the full moon light?

What if we go look at antiques, just want to be with my best friend?’

Oh how I wish, I could ‘What if?’

With John… one more time again”

Words and Music by: Steve Chapman; Times and Seasons Music; BMI

“What If” is found on the CD, “That Way Again”