Sunday, February 28

The singers and dancers will say, "All my fresh springs are in you."
—Psalm 87:6

When our first child Allison was about three years old, we used to waltz together. I would put a Strauss tune on the stereo, pick her up, and sweep her in broad circles around the room to the three-four time. For her it must have felt like a cross between a flying carpet and roller coaster ride. Her eyes got wide, her mouth opened into a gaping grin, and she would squeal with delight to the ups and downs and arounds of the dance.

Recently I heard the Blue Danube waltz on the radio, and I found myself smiling and swaying even before I consciously recalled the joy of those memories. Whenever I hear one of those waltzes, I feel good inside. In some wonderful way I am eternally connected with my lovely daughter through the spirit of the waltz that delighted us both.

Matthew Gunter describes God this way: "God is a dynamic dance of mutual self-giving and receiving and delighting in which there are three givers, but one giving."* The theological word we have for this notion is perichoresis, which literally means something like "they dance around together." One of the ancient metaphors we have for God the Holy Trinity is God as a divine dance of loving friendship.

God the Father is the source and creator of the dance. Everything that is, is an expression of God's love and truth and exuberant joy.God says, "Let there be light," and the universe flies into space and time. God looks at what God has created and pronounces it good.  Our purpose, our joy, is to join the dance of God.

* "The Dance of Love," printed in The Living Church, June 4, 2006.

Let your Spirit fill me with the dance of the divine life as I move and breathe and have my being in you, O God, who with the Son and Holy Spirit lives and loves, forever and ever. Amen.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2007.