God Danced the Day You Were Born
Even though I graduated from seminary over 40 years ago, I continue to learn as I read and study God’s word. Recently, as I was reading in the book of the prophet Zephaniah, I came across a phrase that led to a word study that touched my heart.
”The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17 RSV)
As I began to “dig deeper” into the scripture, I discovered that “rejoice” comes from a Hebrew word that Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines as: a primitive root; properly to spin around (under the influence of any violent emotion), that is, usually rejoice…: – be glad, joy, be joyful, rejoice.
So, the Hebrew word means to “spin around under violent emotion,” or to dance. So, Zephaniah 3:17 is more accurately translated as, “The Lord your God is in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His Love, He will dance over you with singing.”
That, in turn, sent me back in time to a song I learned over 30 years ago, “You Are Loved” by Richard Kramer. The lyrics go:
“You are loved, you are beautiful.
You’re a gift of God, His own creation.
You’re a gift to everyone, His gift of love to ALL;
You are loved… God danced the day you were born.”
I invite you to read the above lines as a prayer, and then close your eyes and allow yourself to envision God celebrating your life.
