I’m not much of a dancer. Perhaps it’s because I’ve lacked opportunity to dance. More likely, it’s from lack of instruction. I certainly do love music though. It stirs my soul and speaks to me in ways that nothing else can. Music was literally the air I breathed during those ten years that I played the flute.
When I see someone dance, one who really knows what they are doing, it’s nothing short of magical. Their body moves in complete harmony with the beat-an intimate union of music and movement.
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Theologians liken the love between the members of the Trinity to that of a dance. C.S. Lewis wrote, “In Christianity God is not a static thing…but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.” Cornelius Plantiga wrote about the way that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit glorify each other, “The persons within God exalt each other, commune with each other and defer to one another…Each divine person harbors the others at the center of his being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance, each person envelops and encircles the others…God’s interior life (therefore) overflows with regard for others.”
God enjoyed this love between the members of the Trinity so much, He created us so that we too can share in this experience of love and joy. We were made to enter this mutual self-giving dance, orbiting around God as our perfect center. We encircle Him, glorifying and serving Him. As we learn the dance, we increasingly love others in the same self-giving way that Christ loved us.
I was made to dance.
Tim Keller says that “The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are pouring love and joy and adoration into the other, each one serving the other. They are infinitely seeking one another’s glory, and so God is infinitely happy. And if it’s true that this world has been created by this triune God, then the ultimate reality is a dance.”
Many days, I don’t enter into the dance. I sit on the side, next to the wall. It’s here that I’m focused on myself. I live as though the world should revolve around me and my desires. I become static, self-centered, and unable to truly love those around me. I’m not living what I was made to do-dance. And if I stay here, I’ll never experience the full reality of love.
True love then, is a dance of mutual giving and serving. It can’t be experienced any other way. Jesus extends His hand, inviting us to the dance. He provides us with the dancing clothes, clean and pure; brilliantly reflecting His glorious light. He teaches us the moves and steps. He fills us completely with His Spirit so that the rhythm of love becomes part of the very fabric of our soul.
It’s because of Him that I can dance.
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