The Divine Dance
"And David danced before the LORD with all his might."-2 Samuel 6:14 (ESV)
The Christmas season is a time of preparation and celebration. Christmas parties, parades, presents, and pageants quickly fill the calendar. My calendar is filled with all kinds of things for my family and myself. I have two daughters that are in ballet, which means that they are in the Christmas classic, The Nutcracker. We went to the afternoon matinee to see my oldest daughter dance. Her part was brief, but memorable. She looked adorable in her ballerina outfit, moving so elegantly and gracefully across the stage. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her dance. She looked and danced beautifully. The show was full of all kinds of girls (and a few boys) demonstrating their ballet proficiency. One particular scene that made a huge impression on me involved two girls dancing across the stage in one of the most amazing dancing duets I have ever seen. When they came on to the stage I was flabbergasted. Their faces were full of light and truth. There was a depth in their movement that was so innocent, so pure, that it stirred such thankfulness, wonder, and effervescent joy in my spirit. What amazed me so much was not the precision of their dance (they weren’t very precise), nor was it their stage presence (they didn’t have much), but it was their simplicity and purity of heart. You see they both had Down’s syndrome. I had never seen someone with Down’s dance before, and quite honestly, I was astonished. I have seen The Nutcracker performed many times over the years and the dancers apart from my daughters have always been forgettable, but not this time. There is no forgetting watching innocence dance. It was absolutely beautiful.
God delights in our dance. We think that we please Him when we come with our polished and precise moves, but God doesn’t delight in how much we have “got it together.” He delights in our dance when we simply yield ourselves to Him as David did. The Christmas season is not about pageantry, but about His person and purpose for our lives. He has come to transform our hearts, enabling us to simply dance. We delight in Him when we dance in the Word of God, letting the music of His love story flow through our movements, awkward as though they may be. The Christmas season is the time that our hearts overflow with thankfulness as we continually set our minds on what He has done for us. The thankfulness we have overflows in praise. Our songs of praise resound throughout the heavens as a song of love, but also as a song of encouragement to other saints that are weary in their dance with God. He doesn’t ask us to be the very best, brightest, or most beautiful. He simply expects us to dance in the beauty and simplicity of who we are before Him, responding to the music of His grace in our daily lives. Amen.
The Christmas season is a time of preparation and celebration. Christmas parties, parades, presents, and pageants quickly fill the calendar. My calendar is filled with all kinds of things for my family and myself. I have two daughters that are in ballet, which means that they are in the Christmas classic, The Nutcracker. We went to the afternoon matinee to see my oldest daughter dance. Her part was brief, but memorable. She looked adorable in her ballerina outfit, moving so elegantly and gracefully across the stage. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her dance. She looked and danced beautifully. The show was full of all kinds of girls (and a few boys) demonstrating their ballet proficiency. One particular scene that made a huge impression on me involved two girls dancing across the stage in one of the most amazing dancing duets I have ever seen. When they came on to the stage I was flabbergasted. Their faces were full of light and truth. There was a depth in their movement that was so innocent, so pure, that it stirred such thankfulness, wonder, and effervescent joy in my spirit. What amazed me so much was not the precision of their dance (they weren’t very precise), nor was it their stage presence (they didn’t have much), but it was their simplicity and purity of heart. You see they both had Down’s syndrome. I had never seen someone with Down’s dance before, and quite honestly, I was astonished. I have seen The Nutcracker performed many times over the years and the dancers apart from my daughters have always been forgettable, but not this time. There is no forgetting watching innocence dance. It was absolutely beautiful.
God delights in our dance. We think that we please Him when we come with our polished and precise moves, but God doesn’t delight in how much we have “got it together.” He delights in our dance when we simply yield ourselves to Him as David did. The Christmas season is not about pageantry, but about His person and purpose for our lives. He has come to transform our hearts, enabling us to simply dance. We delight in Him when we dance in the Word of God, letting the music of His love story flow through our movements, awkward as though they may be. The Christmas season is the time that our hearts overflow with thankfulness as we continually set our minds on what He has done for us. The thankfulness we have overflows in praise. Our songs of praise resound throughout the heavens as a song of love, but also as a song of encouragement to other saints that are weary in their dance with God. He doesn’t ask us to be the very best, brightest, or most beautiful. He simply expects us to dance in the beauty and simplicity of who we are before Him, responding to the music of His grace in our daily lives. Amen.
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