Beauty and Laughter

“[E]very life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing, and the bells don’t ring.”

The stage was dark.  I could make out a group of dancers kneeling together on left stage.  A loud note sounded, and the lights on the stage came on dimly while a dancer jumped over the kneeling group.  All the dancers were dressed in black, with bits of shinny fabric that looked like shards of glass, woven into their shirts.  They glinted off the lights as the dancers’ movements became sharp and aggressive.  It was almost like a jazz style of hip-hop.  Their faces looked as if they were in spiritual pain—they were miserable and lost.

 “Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result.”

As the dance progressed, I pushed my back into my seat, hoping that the dancers pain wouldn’t flow into my heart.  Didn’t the choreographer know that the name of this program was “Beauty and Laughter”?  This dance was not portraying Beauty or Laughter.  It made me think of all those people in the world who didn’t understand why hard times happen—they didn’t understand the purpose of life. 

Gradually the music changed.  It wasn’t loud and sharp; there were now violins, cellos, and flutes, slowly filling the air with hope. The dancers stopped making aggressive movements.  They quizzically looked at one another, at their hands, at their surroundings.  Their dancing became more fluid and beautiful.  The sparkles woven into their black shirts glinting in the stage lights.  The dancers were coming to understand that there was hope in this life full of pain and suffering.  I soon realized that this dance was about redemption. 

“Adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing in our lives . . . We can say, as did my mother, ‘Come what may, and love it.’” ~ Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

This semester Extravadance (the dance company at BYU-Idaho) preformed dances about the Beauty and Laughter seen in the world. 

There is Beauty all around us, each and everyday.  Everyone finds it in different ways.  Some find Beauty in the regal mountains, some in song, some in work, others in family.  Despite all these things God has given us, there is still pain and suffering in our lives.

The other day I was having a hard time.  I didn’t know what Heavenly Father wanted me to do with my life.  My future was foggy.  I couldn’t even see past the end of the month.

As I sat at the edge of my bed contemplating certain events that had taken place in my life, a peaceful feeling lightly touched my heart.  I knew that Heavenly Father was there, and that He was aware of me.  He would guide my life in the way it needed to go.  My attitude of “Come what may and love it” changed my perspective.

“There is beauty and clarity that comes from simplicity that we sometimes do not appreciate in our thirst for intricate solutions.” ~Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

As I sat in my seat at Extravadance, I glanced down at my program finding the name of the last dance, “Beauty and Laughter” by: Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

That’s weird, I thought.  I didn’t know that they had a song called that.

As the opening chords sounded I recognized the song, as “This is the Christ.”  As I watched the dancers, all dressed in white, move gracefully across the stage, I noticed that each was happy to be alive—to be dancing.   I realized this last dance summed up what all the other dances were portraying—that Christ was the reason we have Beauty and Laughter.  If it were not for His Atonement, Death, and Resurrection, then we would not have life.  We would be experiencing the hopeless nothingness that the dancers dressed in black had experienced.  But because of Him we can feel that gentle peace in our hearts when our future seems foggy, when friends abandon us, when loved ones are lost, and when children go astray.

This is the Christ, the holy Son of God,

Our Savior, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.

This is the Christ, the healer of our souls

Who ransomed us with love divine.

Christ is my Beauty and Laughter