A Summer Celebration

Our friends have a huge luau for all their friends every August. And every year it gets better. It is beautiful and fun, but also a bit wistful, because it marks the beginning of the end of summer. Also, last year our whole family went. This year my daughter-in-law is ill and bedbound, so the rest of our family couldn’t come. But if we have to bid farewell to summer, then a warm night with images to delight the eye, and wonderful food, music, and friends is the best way to do it. And when it turns to dusk, the hundreds of twinkling lights come on like multitudes of fireflies and the children shriek with joy as they break open the piñata. A wonderland visit one night a year. Solomon said “I command the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad.” God ordered the Israelites to have several festivals a year. Ezra 6:22 says that they celebrated one feast for seven days because the Lord had filled them with joy. The king and officials provided the partiers with 2,000 bulls and 17,000 sheep and goats. And 2Chron. 30:23 tells us that at one of these celebrations, after the seven days were up, they decided to celebrate seven more. Wow! They must have been very healthy! That must have been the biggest party of all time. But, then again, God had given them the joy to celebrate. Remember when King David and the Israelites celebrated the return of the Ark? As the Ark was entering the city, David was so filled with joy that he got carried away, and removed a bit too much of his clothing, dancing half naked in the street. His wife was watching from a window and she was absolutely mortified! She should have been down there celebrating with them, but she was defiantly not a party animal. She was above all that common rowdiness. And when she saw David, she lit into him. Well, he informed her that he was the King, and would be even more undignified if he wanted. David was being honest and was overjoyed in his worship of God. The celebrations in those days must have really been something. In an earlier post, I quoted a Sara Teasdale poem,” Life Has Loveliness To Sell”. “Spend everything you have on loveliness. Buy it and never count the cost.” We had an evening full of loveliness tonight, and it didn’t cost a thing. Thank you, Sue and Rodney Knight!