There is something about being barefoot that feels so free.  So childlike.  To go out in the front yard to water flowers or greet a neighbor with nothing but skin on my feet, feeling the cool tickle of the grass underneath them. To let my bare toes feel the warmth of the stone and brick driveway and walk on their very tippiest parts to feel the muscles in my calves come to life.  To step in the puddles left by the sprinklers and collect a little of the raw earth between my toes.

It makes me feel a little like the ballerina I never was.  Like the child I once was.

If you haven’t tried being barefoot beyond the shower in a while, you should give it a try again.  There is an innocent vulnerability to it.  You might step on something sharp.  You might get a little bit dirty.  But I guarantee you’ll feel things you never will with your shoes on.

I just listened to a piano solo called The Reluctant Ballerina. So many pictures came to mind.  Sweet but sad.

I saw a girl with the beauty of the dance inside her.  But she is reluctant.  Something is holding her back.  Pain.  Fear.  Pride.  It could be anything.  But whatever it is, it is keeping her from doing what she knows, what she was at one point passionate about. Something happened that made her forget the freedom of dancing.

She is well versed in the technique of dancing.  She has trained and studied and practiced. Her head knows how to dance.  But she has lost the joy of dancing from the heart.

She is lovely, but she is sad.

I long to take that girl by the hand and walk her out of the studio and onto the grass.  To carefully remove her ballet slippers and watch the smile that emerges as her feet feel the freedom of the earth beneath them.  To run her through a puddle and hear her laughter as she jumps and splashes.  I want to see dirt on those weary ballerina feet that makes them look real and alive and beautiful.

And then I imagine that without her thinking or me asking, she begins to dance.  Freely.  Childlike.  In a way she has never danced before.  Tears streaming, smile beaming.  Passionate.  Unafraid.  Lost in the music of the moment.  That moment when her barefoot heart asks for her dance card and she freely gives it.

In what ways are we reluctant ballerinas?  What has God given us, taught us, shown us that we have only kept in our heads but have not lived out?  What fear or pain or pride has stood in the way of us dancing freely and barefoot?  What gifts and abilities have we been blessed with that we aren’t spilling out on others?  What do we know that we’re not dancing to?

Take off your shoes with me today.  Feel the coolness, the warmth, the textures.  Know the freedom of dancing barefoot.

And suddenly, you can’t help but smile…

Psalm 16:9 – Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices…

Isaiah 55:12 – For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

2 Samuel 6:14 – And David danced before the LORD with all his might…