Dance for Joy
by David Chang, Director of Ministry Support
“Adonai your God is in your midst—a mighty Savior! He will delight over you with joy. He will quiet you with His love. He will dance for joy over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, Tree of Life Version)
My three-year-old granddaughter has opened up a new world of worshiping God for me. She recently started ballet class at Prisma Dance, which offers Christ-centered dance training. On the occasions when my son and daughter-in-law had scheduling challenges, I would pick up Daralyn from school and take her to dance class.
The first time I went, I was curious as to how the class would express its Christ-centeredness. It was cute to see the class begin with prayer, and then have Bible stories used as a vehicle to learn dance movements. But God had more in store for me.
At Daralyn’s Christmas recital, there was the familiar portrayal of the Christmas story. And yes, it was so cute to see Daralyn dressed in her sheep costume, joyfully prancing about in celebration of the birth of Jesus. But then the program took a surprising turn. Instead of another group going up on stage to continue the Christmas story, they took a break. In the middle of the program.
They made time for praise and worship! Led by anointed worship leaders, the audience soon joined in an enthusiastic song. But then it went up another level for me. Dance students went on stage and began to worship through dance. Their steps were not choreographed. No, their movement was an outward expression of what the Holy Spirit was doing in their hearts and minds. They were receiving God’s blessings, and then reflected it back to Him through their movement. Some were leaping in exuberance; some were prostrate in surrender; others were scribing God’s beauty in the air. It was an amazing, soul-filling time.
When given the choice of scripture to write about for this devotional, I immediately grabbed Zephaniah. I knew there was a verse in there about God singing over me. I have always loved this verse because it so encourages me to know that God is singing over me. And then I discovered that in some translations, it also says that God is dancing over me.
In more familiar translations, the phrase is: “He will exult over you with singing.” It turns out that the root of the Hebrew word for “exult” or “rejoice” means “to spin around with violent emotion,” or, “to dance with joy.” Wow! God is not just singing, He is dancing! And what is motivating God? Is it because I’ve done some great work, or maybe some little work? I don’t think so. God is singing and dancing because He loves me. That’s it. It is enough for God to break out in song and dance because He loves me.
Prayer: To my Heavenly Father, the One who is singing and dancing over me—help me to sing and maybe even dance to show my love for You. You said that my singing can be joyful noise, so maybe my dance can be a spastic stumble, but I know it will please You just the same. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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