celebrate

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We Celebrated Yet Again

The other night my wife, Lily, and I celebrated our wedding anniversary – our 33rd.

It’s pretty normal to mark special occasions with a celebration of some kind. Some celebrations include many people, some just a special place. 

Lil and I have celebrated in different ways over the years. There were some that are more memorable than others. 

There was the time on our tenth anniversary that we stayed a night in the Fantasyland Hotel at West Edmonton Mall. We had a choice between choosing the Trucker Room, where the bed was actually in the back of a pickup truck, or the Polynesian Room with a canopy bed, a large fountain jacuzzi tub, and greenery that gave the feeling of being in a garden. 

Lil picked the Polynesian Room over the Trucker Room which was okay because I wasn’t really drawn to sleeping in the back of a pickup truck anyway. 

Many of our anniversary celebrations have involved just the two of us going out for a nice dinner to a unique or special restaurant. 

But there have been times when the celebration got bigger and extended – like for our 25th anniversary. That was kind of a whole year celebration. 

We started out at the beginning of the year going a cruise with our children, marking likely our last family vacation. Then a few months later, we spent 14 days on a tour of Israel. We finished off our “year of jubilee” with purchasing a park model trailer at our vacation spot at Sauble Beach. 

It was an expensive anniversary celebration, but one year we won’t forget. 

Celebrations are necessary; they highlight something that is special. They cause us to reminisce about the past and recall the good things, accomplishments, and milestones of life. 

They cause us to remember why the thing we are celebrating matters. 

We celebrate birthdays, achievements, goals, successes, victories, and even sometimes we celebrate for the sake of celebration. 

The thing about celebrations is that they pertain only to those on the inside of the celebration. 

The other night Lily and I had dinner at a restaurant on the St. Lawrence River, overlooking the water from a screened in porch. As the sun went down and the moon came up, the light glimmered across the water. The boats below us gently rocked back and forth tied to their docks. 

It was special, but the people who were seated at tables around us had no idea we were celebrating anything. They weren’t party to our celebration. 

It was a private celebration in public.

A celebration can include many, but the many will only celebrate if they are connected in some way to the special occasion. Otherwise they are completely oblivious to it all. It makes no impression, no remembrance, no reminder. 

Only the celebrants experience the richness of the occasion. But for them, even when it is quiet, it’s a true celebration … Happy anniversary, Lil.

Here’s the thing: There will be a celebration when Christ returns. When Christ returns, this world will be made right. There will be peace; there will be joy; there will be a celebration. But that celebration, like any celebration, will be for those who are connected to Christ. It will be the greatest celebration this world has ever known, but it will be anything but a celebration for those who have no tie to Jesus. No one will want to miss being part of this celebration, so make sure you have a personal relationship with the One who is being celebrated. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you have to celebrate today? Leave your comments below.

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A Canada Look-Back, I Mean Ahead

On July 1 we celebrated all that has made Canada what it is today. This was our 150th birthday.

I’ve only shared 61 of those birthdays with the country, but just writing that puts it in perspective how young a country we live in.

I’m only 14 years shy of being half as old as Canada. Wow!

My grandmother – if she was still alive today – would have only been 17 years younger than our nation. Now that would be impressive! My grandmother passed away in 1983 at the age of 99.

It’s all nice to look back on your birthday, but I want to look ahead in this piece.

When I think of Canada’s 150th, it brings a few questions to my mind that I wonder about.

One question I have is, “Will the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup in the next 150 years?”

It’s been 50 years since their last victory, but lately they seem to be making some moves in the right direction. I can wait a long time for it to happen, but I don’t have 150 years left in me.

I also wonder, “Will Donald Trump last 4 years in office, or will he even last the year?”

I get a CNN feed on my Apple Watch and 95% of the news that shows up is related to Donald Trump. I have never seen the news/entertainment industry so captivated with one person before.

Trump is like the Beatles were in the 60’s; no one could get enough of them.

As I watched TV and saw a protest on Parliament Hill, one question that came to mind was, “Will we ever come to a resolution with our Indigenous Peoples of Canada?”

The Prime Minister sat with the leaders in a teepee they had set up on the Parliament lawn. When he left, the Indigenous leaders were all encouraged and felt he had heard their heart. But a few hours later the protesters were trying to set up another teepee on the lawn.

I wonder if any real progress will be made on this issue in the next 150 years.

In light of global warming, my questions is, “Will the weathermen become more accurate in predicting rain and snow, or will the forecasts remain much the same – wrong about 50% of the time?”

Another question I have is, “With all the rights various groups have now, will we become cookie-cutter people, forced to think, talk and act like each other? … You know, shades of Orwell’s “1984”.

If that happens, it will cut down on the myriad of choices we have to make now. Things like fashion, interests, and food might not be all that exciting, but we won’t need an opinion; we will all share the same one.

Just think, when you need to buy a car, there would only be a few choices: Will that be a compact, mid-size or SUV?

I’m not convinced that what got us through the last 150 years will carry us on into the next. We are venturing into new territory.

Here’s the thing: We may have many questions about the future of our country and life in this great land of ours. We can’t foresee the answers to many of our questions, but there is an outcome that has already been determined. When Jesus died on the cross for mankind’s sins, He said He is coming back to take those who put their faith in Him to be with Him in heaven. That we can have confidence in. Make sure your faith is based in Christ because you can count on God to know the future.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What questions do you have about the next 150 years? Leave your comments below.