Prior to Christmas my beautiful Kitty and I went to two different churches for special programs of music, the spoken word and stylistic dancing which was so graceful that only the young in heart and body could execute the wide variation of movements with such skill.
Some of us attended churches in our younger days where dancing was totally unacceptable as part of worship. When I was a junior at Marshall University the church’s youth spent time participating in “singing games” -- the very thing we called “folk dancing” in numerous 4-H Camps. Kitty reminds me that in her church they often had pantomimes.
Our first real exposure to liturgical dancing was at Estes Park, Colorado, in a conference of national youth leaders from many different denominations. We were there as representatives of the youth and leadership of the Church of God (Anderson, IN). Each day morning worship featured two beautiful dark-skinned young people. Their body movements helped tell the Biblical story we were considering for the day. We had just returned from seven months in Panama and the West Indies. They reminded us of the young people we had just left in the Caribbean.
John Dryden, brilliant writer of an earlier century, described the dance as “Poetry of the foot.” I turned to Richards Complete Bible Dictionary, for a quick purview of dancing as we see it used in various expressions of Biblical literature.
It is described as “rhythmic movement of the body, usually to music.” Dancing was a joyous experience for God’s Old Testament people, associated with celebration and worship. The one experience in Hebrew writing that most of us have heard about concerns “David who danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 16:14).
A classic New Testament story describes the day when the prodigal son, after being gone a long time and thought to be dead, finally returned home, his father said, “ . . . and let us eat and be merry; . . . and the older son was in the field . . . as he came near the house he heard music and dancing” (Luke 15:24-25). It was time to celebrate. The father’s son had come home.
When I heard the magnificent songs of Christmas, including Kitty’s powerful and beautiful solo voice, the reading of the Word of God and watched the young children and teenagers tell the story of Mary and the Christ child with their interpretative dancing, I recalled the days when I was a teenage dancer -- just for one unforgettable school program as a ninth grader. We watched one young tap dancer. He had more loose joints than anybody I’ve ever seen. He was all arms and legs. And he loves Jesus supremely.
Christmas becomes many things to many people, but it all must be centered in Jesus Christ if we are to capture the real meaning of the total experience.
During the 25 years I lived in Decatur, Illinois, one of the most valued friends was Forest G. Wikoff, Jr., owner and director of the Wikoff Funeral Homes. In 1972 he gave to me a large maroon leather padded book titled Christmas. It was subtitled, “An American Annual of Christmas Literature and Art”. It is on my desk now filled with the stories, poetry, music, art and movements of this blessed season.
Kitty joins me in wishing all who read this column a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and Happy New Year. May you, your family and friends experience the joys and the Christ of Christmas.
Christmas is something to sing and dance about. May the blessings of God rest upon you and all those whom you know and love.
Publisher's Note: Bill Ellis, Award Winning
Syndicated Columnist, P.O. Box 345, Scott Depot, WV 25560.
Phone:304-757-6089
www.BillEllis.Net.
