(Malachi 1.2)
They were arguing fiercely.
“Even if you were to bring down here God dancing I would still not believe!”
“Can you imagine God dancing?!” replied the other instantly.
And I said to myself
“Does God dance? Why not?!”
Actually God is the only one
who has every reason to dance!
Because God is happy.
God is joyful.
He does not pull a long face.
He does not whimper.
He does not nag for every trivial thing.
He is not stubborn.
His heart is full of joy.
He knows how to laugh.
He knows how to joke.
He knows how to smile.
We think everyone is like us.
Since we spend more time in a bad rather than in a good mood,
we think that even God is like that.
A sombre person,
paranoid about justice and retribution.
Since we spend our life drudging,
nagging continually,
always seeing black,
we think that God too… never dances
never sings
never jumps for joy.
Since we need tranquillizers to live,
the thought that perhaps even God needs tranquillizers to live
passes through our mind!
Obviously this is not true.
It is the devil who is unhappy with himself,
He, yes, always carries a long face,
He is always looking for something to frustrate those who walk with him!
“That poor thing, who does not know how to love!”
– this is how Saint Teresa of Jesus defines the devil.
A friend of mine once told me that we can put our minds at rest
on one thing:
the industry of problems.
We are able to invent them,
enlarge them,
embellish them
and we are even able to sell them to others!!!
We nag because we eat… I’m putting on weight!
We nag because we fast… I’m becoming skin and bone!
We nag because it is hot… we are sweating!
We nag because it is cold… it’s chilly!
This God of ours has a really grand problem with us trying to make us happy.
But He tries.
And when He became man in Jesus Christ we could really see
God’s smiling face.
He was the cheerful type who tried to make others content.
He was the smiling type who tried to make others laugh.
He was full of energy and life
and tried to share this gusto with all those who met him.
He was the type who instead of inventing problems and worries,
would do his very best to solve them.
In whatever he did, he tried to destroy anxiety
do away with long faces
release gloomy hearts.
If only we could learn how to dance
from Him
with Him
and like Him!
“Rejoice, exult with all your heart,
daughter of Jerusalem!
Yahweh has repealed your sentence;
He has turned your enemy away.
Yahweh is king among you, Israel,
You have nothing more to fear.
When that Day comes, the message for Jerusalem will be:
Zion, have no fear,
do not let your hands fall limp.
Yahweh your God is there with you,
the warrior-Saviour.
He will rejoice over you with happy song,
he will renew you by his love,
he will dance with shouts of joy for you,
as on a day of festival.” (Zephaniah 3.14-18)