Originally published 11-18-19
Last Tuesday I almost didn’t go to the BYU Devotional. Nevertheless, I felt like I should, even though it was just a dance performance devotional. I’m really glad I went, though. Not only was it a really well done performance, but I also felt impressed with a couple of ways dancing relates to the Gospel and to Christ’s Atonement.
Later, I sent this out to the dance department, and they really enjoyed reading it!
Life’s Grand Rehearsal
Our joy is not just in the dancers’ grace
or eloquence they find in every turn,
but in the leaps and dips and pirouettes
is the awe of what we, too, could someday learn.
Our joy is not just in the blind man’s sight
or in the lepers, healed and whole and clean,
but in the Man who raised the blind man up
and all that He can help us someday be.
The hours of perfecting practice spent
in repetitions, slip-ups, trips and falls
make us better dancers for the trying.
Mistakes just become memories, after all.
The millions of trials we go through,
the times we mess up over and over again
refine our souls as nothing else quite can,
if we let Christ erase our every sin.
A dance is not just one person, alone
on stage and with a snare drum for a heart,
but teams and groups and partners who each try
to work together for this work of art.
We were never meant to live solo,
or try with just our strength to make it home,
but family, friends, the Spirit and the Son
will help us never have to dance alone.
