The dancing God…

I skyped with my daughter and grandkids in Ghana yesterday.

My homeschooled grands were excited to tell me that for a few hours each morning

they now go to the Christian school next to the church.

They’re the only “obruni” in the classes full of beautiful, black Ghanaian faces.

When I asked my grandson what he learned at school that morning, he said.

“Allah is not God.”

I smile.

He is, after all, in Ghana with his parents and sister as Christian missionaries.

(Though it’s not politically correct to say so, either the Bible is true or it isn’t,

and if it is, then the God of the Bible is the One True God, and His Son Jesus is the Only Way to Him.)

My grandson proceeded to tell me that people who worship Allah cannot dance in church,

but people who worship the true God of the Bible can dance when they worship.

This makes me smile too.

Ghanaians love to dance during worship.

First the women start, a conga line of worship, hankies waving in the air.

Then they mosey back to their places and the men dance,

and my grandson, he joins right on in.

I kind of regret that when I was in Ghana last month,  I didn’t join the line of dancing ladies.

I thought about what my grandson said all the rest of the day.

The Ghanaian teacher could have used any of many theological examples

to contrast Allah and the God of the Bible…

God created the heavens and the earth.

Even before creation, God knew man would need a Savior,

and in His mind and heart already decided to offer up the sinless sacrifice of His own Son,

so that He could adopt us as His own children,

 just so we could be wrapped up in the same great love that already existed between Father, Son, and Spirit.

(The God of the Bible LOVES…does any other God love?)

Jesus was born of a virgin.

He lived a sinless life.

He died a cruel death on the cross.

He rose again three days later.

He ascended to heaven and sits at God the Fathers right hand interceding for us.

He’s coming back to earth to make wrong things right once and for all.

The teacher could have said any of those things.

Instead, the teacher taught the children that the difference between Allah and the God of the Bible

is that God wants His children to be able to dance.

I really believe it’s true.

David, the man after God’s own heart, danced before God in worship.

And God, He sings over us and twirls with delight, when He thinks about His kids,

all because He loves us just as much as He loves His Only Begotten Son, Jesus.

On my walk/jog yesterday afternoon, the truth of this dancing God, Who wants His kids to dance,

settled right down into my heart,

and right there in the middle of the the street I kind of wanted to

look up to heaven and lift my arms high and do a little twirl,

and I kind of regret that I didn’t.

 

Still following,

Elizabeth