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Celebrate!

Years, months and
days, and celebrating sixty-three years of marriage.  The struggles and adjustments to be ‘one’ are
still in progress.  An aura of
golden-glazed and joyful memories surround us. 
And we are blessed.  Friends and
families rejoice with us.
We have celebrated
many wedding anniversaries.  Each
celebration is a little different.  The
early years, we celebrated with our four little ones.  Through the years, they left and lived far
from us, leaving us to often to celebrate alone.  Our celebration usually included a meal in a
restaurant, but as the years continued, the meal became a drive-through-carry-out
dinner.  The length of the shopping trip
began to shrink with our energy levels, from four stores to one bookstore.  Yet we celebrated and remembered.
Life is filled
with many reasons to celebrate – a birthday, a new year, a new job, a
successful move, a haircut, a new piece of clothing, successes in life and
work, a new car, a new baby, a new grandchild. 
Why celebrate?
After some
contemplation, I realize that celebrating is really a realization of an encountered
blessing.  After reading Ann Voskamp’s
book, One Thousand Gifts, I see many
reasons to celebrate.  One of Ann’s
quotes is,
“I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in
the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep.” 
I liked this quote, for celebrations
don’t always have to be ‘top drawer’, but simple.  Maybe just between God and me.  When we celebrate with God, it is a ‘full
house’ celebration.  Celebration is
thankful awareness from where the blessing-celebration comes.  It is gratitude for what is.
When I was a child, birthdays were
always celebrated, possibly because Mom’s birthday fell on July 4th.
 In 1907, Grandmother could not
‘announce’ Anna Daisy’s birth on the party line because the telephone operator
was on holiday.  Mom told of sitting on
the chicken house roof as a girl, watching the fire works display several miles
away in Hillsboro, KS.  Now that is a
celebration.
As a child, our
family birthday celebrations were a picnic, complete with a freezer of homemade
ice cream in a new place. On 4th of July, the ice cream of choice
was peppermint.  One June birthday when I
was 10 years old, we traveled to a sandpit to eat ice cream. A wind came up that
caused each spoon of ice cream to have more of a crunch than normal.  Dad and Mom decided against a re-run of that
location.  We often laughed about the
added nutrient of that celebration.
Gratitude and
Celebration is a choice.  Saying thank
you for the little things is a choice. 
One of the most freeing of all thoughts during a trying or sad time, is
to look for the lesson God is teaching. 
Thanking our Lord God for all things, brings peace, joy and most of all
– hope. 
The attitude
makes or breaks a celebration.  Picture a
rebellious grimace instead of appreciation and you understand the importance of
the attitude. The choice of rebellious attitude is the absence of the
servant-heart.  That heart cannot know
gratitude or any reason for celebration.
There is all-out
energy in celebration.  Just now, lift
your arms to God and cry, “I love you, Lord, I celebrate You!”  Feel the tears gather in your eyes as the
deep emotion of that physical expression of love fills the deepest corners of
your soul.  Your heart beats faster and
suddenly the ‘what is of life’ loses its grim hold on life.  There is hope in your heart and spring in
your step, for you know God lives!
An all-out
celebration brings new life and new purpose. 
My painting-friend and I drove through the streets and celebrated all
the unusual colored-hues and shapes in God’s Creation.  We were filled with energy to return to
painting.  Recently we were challenged to
create our own Gratitude Gallery of the
people we celebrate. 
Finding the
scriptures with the word celebrate brings nuances of God-proclaimed
celebrations.  From the Passover
Celebration, the return of the Ark of God, the Festival of the Shelters, Festival
of Purim, Festival to Unleavened Bread, Festival to the Harvest, Festival of
the Trumpets to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper on the First Day of the
Week.  Festivals and Celebrations lasted
for a week at a time.  One verse said
that the celebration shook the earth —
And all the people followed Solomon into
Jerusalem, playing flutes and shouting for joy. The celebration was so joyous and noisy that the earth shook with
the sound. 
I Kings 1:40
The celebrations and
festivals included fatted calves and prepared foods to eat and music with
singing and instruments.  Praise the Lord, for the Lord is
good; celebrate his
lovely name with music.  Psalm 135:3 
We celebrate the birth
and resurrection of Jesus, the foundation of our faith and hope. How deeply we
celebrate indicates what Jesus means to us. 
Tinsel and lights do not fill the heart as we celebrate the Light of the
World at Christmas.  His love and
sacrifice do.
God taught us how to
celebrate and He is the Who we celebrate! 
How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear
you.

You lavish it on those who come to you for
protection,
 blessing
them before the watching world.
You hide them in the
shelter of your presence,
 safe
from those who conspire against them.
You
shelter them in your presence,
 far
from accusing tongues.  Psalm 31:19-20
 
Celebrate and Live Joyously with Hope!

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