Dancing with the Trinity — Reflections from a FatherHeart ‘A’ School
“God is not a static thing…but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.” — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Two weeks ago I was one of four Healing Spring team members to attend the FatherHeart ‘A’ School in Massachusetts. It is hard to describe what an ‘A’ School is like. It’s not a conference and not even really a ‘school’. It is perhaps most accurately described as a retreat – a time to let go and just be. We undoubtedly learned a lot during our time in Massachusetts, but the week was much more about the heart than the head. It was truly transformational.
As I reflect on this time, the thing that continues to stand out is a revelation of the love that exists within the Holy Trinity – and we are invited to enter into that love. As the apostle Paul tells us, when we become Christians we enter into that loving relationship through Jesus (Gal. 3:26). We are no longer on the outside, as those expelled from Eden, but we are restored to our home within the Trinity where we are beloved sons and daughters of the Father.
Throughout the week, I was constantly reminded of a passage from C.S. Lewis’ remarkable Space Trilogy. The second book of this fantasy trilogy, Perelandra, tells of creation’s struggle between good and evil as seen through the eyes of Dr. Ransom, a Cambridge linguist, who finds himself transported to Venus to become a key player in God’s creation of life on that planet.
Toward the end of the book, Dr. Ransom witnesses and is drawn into what is described as the “Great Dance”. This dance is an eternal union within the Trinity in which we may rejoice before the face of the Father.
It has begun from before always. There was no time when we did not rejoice before His face as now. The dance which we dance is at the centre and for the dance all things were made.
The Great Dance is a thing of indescribable beauty abounding with intricate patterns and infinite color, a paradox of complexity and simplicity. It is the dance of all creation.
In the plan of the Great Dance plans without number interlock, and each movement becomes in its season the breaking into flower of the whole design to which all else had been directed. Thus each is equally at the centre and none are there by being equals, but some by giving place and some by receiving it, the small things by their smallness and the great by their greatness, and all the patterns linked and looped together by the unions of a kneeling with a sceptred love. Blessed be He!
It is this idea of being at the centre of the dance that struck me most. As sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, this is our rightful place. We are not to merely observe from the outside, we are to enter into this eternal dance of love.
When Ransom’s experience draws to an end, he is left with a deep inner peace and discovers that he has been caught up in the dance for an entire year, yet had no awareness of the passage of time. Indeed, with God, there is no such thing as time, and we are beckoned to dance with him for eternity.
In some way, I feel like last week gave me a taste of the Great Dance. Encountering the love of the Father in a new way (through teaching, revelation and resting with the Father) allowed me to experience a greater revelation of the fullness of the Trinity.
I know there is so much more. (With God there is always more!) But I am grateful to have had this opportunity to begin to learn the steps of the Great Dance, not as an observer, but as a participant!
— by Shay Mason