Celebration!

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Celebrations seem to be everywhere these days.  Everyone is having babies, graduating, or getting married.  At least, that’s how it feels.  It’s been so great!  We love celebrations around here.  I know it seems like such a no-brainer to celebrate good things, but some of us aren’t as good at it.  We weren’t.  We were always too busy, or we pushed it to the last minute.  We used to do this because it didn’t seem as important as the other things in life, like working, ministry, chores.  You know, the “serious” stuff?

Then, a couple years ago, we took on celebration as a spiritual discipline.  I know, awesome, right?  That’s like taking a college class on remedial partying.  But, we took it seriously.  We read books on the importance of celebration and we searched the Bible for instances when God asked his people to stop, and celebrate what He had done.  It’s all over the place!  Did you know that God has asked us to take the time to celebrate?  He has.  A lot.  And, not just the parties that you and I know, he asked Israelites to take DAYS, weeks sometimes.  Don’t you just love that?  And, then of course there is the fact that Jesus’ first miracle was at a celebration.  Remember when his mom made him turn the water into wine?  God loves celebration.

As I’ve taken celebration on as spiritual practice, I’ve learned how much I need it.  Not only do I need the fun and refreshment it provides, but I need to practice the kind of gratitude that looks like dancing around and being silly.  I need to have times with God where we just laugh together.  Times where we can look back on a long day and we can say, “Look what we did there together.  How did you pull that off?”

What do you get to celebrate with God today?  Find something.  And, do it up!  Bake a cake if you need to. 🙂