What makes a dance successful? One response might be that the partners not step on each other. I like that response because dance symbolizes relationship.
Two tiny moons, Janus and Epimetheus, are known as Saturn’s dancing moons. Side by side they orbit the gas giant for four years, and then, for some mysterious reason, they switch positions. Presently Janus is closer to Saturn, but next year it will yield that position to Epimetheus.
Why these moons behave as they do is one of the myriad of questions evolutionary astronomy cannot answer. Why did God make those dancing moons?
I think God has a sense of humor. Mankind claims to be wise, though foolishly ignoring the Creator (Romans 1:20–25), and so God tossed a God-sized handful of puzzles into the solar system.
While astronomers try to solve the puzzle of the dancing moons, let’s use their dance as a reminder to watch out for each other. Don’t do anything out of selfish ambition, wrote the Apostle, but think of others as better than yourself. Look out not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. This is the attitude, he explained, that Jesus Christ had when he humbled himself in obedience to God (Philippians 2).
Janus and Epimetheus are humble looking little moons, but their dance is a challenge to man’s intellect and mindset. Yielding to others rather than promoting self goes against the world’s attitude of grabbing all one can.
God has chosen the foolish things to put to shame the wise, and the weak things to shame the mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27).
See Janus and Epimetheus
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I like the image of relationships as a dance in which we try not to step on each other's toes.
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