Sometimes pain is like a fire.  Like a fire slowly dying, it’s embers glistening in a sea of ash. Constant, steady, and oddly comforting – because it’s presence means you’re still alive.  And yet, like on a cold winter’s day, it can be stoked and prodded until it flickers and roars. Until it rages and you come undone. 

Sometimes when the fire is roaring, you forget to feel. Or you don’t – and every spark and pop that sizzles breaks something inside one piece at a time.  Until all that is left is embers of a life once lived. And now you shift through dust, desperately looking for something to fan into flame. Because sometimes the fire is the only life you know.  The only life you understand. 

Sometimes life is like a dance.  Gliding through the easy, joyful movements that make happy, carefree memories. Until the music slows, and the embers stir.  And you slow dance with a dance partner you didn’t ask for.  A partner no one ever wishes for, but many have to face.  

The fire burns and you dance. Because sometimes the dance is the only way to survive.  And so you dance in slow, methodical movements.  No longer graceful, no longer beautiful.  But still yours. And you face the music as it plays a song only your heart can hear.

Music speaks to the soul.  It goes down deep, past the burning embers and touches the places no one can see. It pours a soothing balm over the wounds from the fire and the dance.  Raw places that threaten to burst open again.  It replaces rejection and repels fear.  

In fire, in the dance, He is the music. He breathes life into the wounded places. He picks up the charred pieces from the fire and makes them new.  He lifts these eyes to the heavens, and the dance becomes light and airy – like a feather gliding in the wind. He restores what is broken.  

And breath returns, slowly and evenly. And hearts are lighter, and less burdened. Because He controls the fire.  He watches over the dance.  And He is the song.  Because the dance is not always easy, and the fire often rages and roars, but He is the song of our hearts.  Beautiful and sweet, it plays as the fire burns. And we dance, because the Music gives us joy that can never be extinguished.