Christmas: The Dance of God

Christmas is a great time of year. I love so many things about the season – times with family and friends, great food, gifts given and received – just a few of my favorites. Christmas especially inspires me to consider who God is and what He has done to bring life to me. Christmas is the dance of God. Lee Ann Womack’s song I Hope You Dance is an inspirational picture of the dance.

God dances! God – the Father, God – the Son, and God – the Spirit are one and three at the same time. The relational nature of the Trinity is not self-centeredness, but mutual self-giving love. When you delight and serve someone else, you enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, you center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance as each moves around the other two. Early leaders of the Greek Church had a word for this – perichoresis. It means literally to “dance or flow around.”

God created man to share in the dance. In full delight and pleasure, God brought man into the world. He offered him everything man needed to enjoy life. God had one limitation to not eat of the tree of “good and evil.” As long as man honored the boundary God had set, all would go well and he would be included in the dance.

To enjoy the dance of God requires that a focus be on the dance partner. The moment that self-centeredness enters the dance, the music stops! And that’s exactly what happened. Adam chose to hear the lie and allow himself to lose sight of the dance partner and focus on what he did not have and pursue it. He ate of the tree and ushered to the dance floor chaos, pain, and death. That truly was “the day the music died.”

Christmas is the story of how God – the Son – left the dance of the Trinity (which had to be an amazing grief for the Trinity to experience). Jesus entered a foreign world to rescue mankind and restore the dance. He gave His life even when man was responsible and in rebellion. God gave up His beloved to restore life to man.

I love what Christmas means! I am inspired to remember that I have been rescued. John 1:12 says that God has given those who receive Jesus the right to be called His children. I hope this Christmas you know you’re a child of God by placing your trust in Jesus. Only His provision for your sin allows you to re-enter the dance.

I hope you Dance!

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