I don’t dance often nor particularly well. And I only dance when I have something spectacular to celebrate. I dance when I am happy. And also, because I am a fallen self-conscience guy, only when no-one is looking! Still, dancing at its best is a spontaneous physical response to an internal unconstrained joy. And here is the punchline – God has invited us to dance with Him! To enter into His joy by receiving his undiminished happiness. God has created us out of the fullness of His love.
We are made in the image of an infinitely happy God. God is essentially a community of persons celebrating mutual glorifying love. From eternity past God has existed in a fellowship of love, light, and life. The three persons of the Trinity pour themselves out in love and honor and delight toward the other persons in the Godhead.
What does it mean to glorify someone? When we delight in another and praise them we glorify them. When we enjoy the other for who they are we glorify them. When we pour ourselves into and for the other in order to see them radiate with joy we glorify them.
God – Father, Son, and Spirit – has always existed in a radiant community of pure, self-giving love. It is this God, this eternally and infinitely happy God, this full to overflowing God, that creates us in His own image. I am straining finite words in an attempt to stretch them around an infinite concept. These words may fail to do it justice, but they do, I trust, entice us.
We are made to be like the infinitely happy God. We are formed and fashioned to glorify another, as He does; to wrap our lives around another in order to make them happy, as He does; and to give others joy, as He does. That is how we bear the image of God well. We were made for community – ‘it is not good for the man to be alone.’ We were made to focus and aim at the joy of another. We are never more at rest than when we sacrifice for the contentment, fulfillment, and joy of other persons. We were made to give ourselves away in other glorifying love because we are made in God’s likeness.
If we have not received this message sooner, God shouts it to us clearly through our grandkids. Typically, grandparents find no greater delight than in their children’s children. They pour themselves into those precious image bearers, they glorify them! Later, I will show you pictures of my grandkids. Oh, what a delight to give myself away to them. We are never more ourselves than when we truly love others. But the main object of our love, the focus of our lives ought to be the God of glory himself!
God created us to know him, to enjoy him, to glorify him. God has invited us to the dance of life. When we give ourselves away to God in other glorifying love, we receive back the same, ten-fold. God has invited us to dance, not merely with other creatures made in His image, but with God himself. We are called to enter into the community of self-giving love that is God himself. And the dance increases.
So, what is heaven anyway? It is dancing in delight with God and his people, forever. It is living the heavenly life now, and always. It is receiving and then reflecting back, the glory, the love, the fulness of God. Will you dance with me? Won’t you dance with Him?