Celebrate

“OK, what about celebrating? How do we want to engage in this rhythm?” I asked. “I think we should celebrate every one of our birthdays.”

“Yes, and anniversaries,” someone said. “Think about how rare it is these days for people to stay married, especially in this region. Celebrating marriage and God’s help in keeping us married is definitely what a family would do.”

“Anything else?”

“Don’t forget all the holidays. Let’s watch the fireworks together on the Fourth of July and invite our friends to join us.”

“And Halloween—that’s how I came into this group in the first place. We should use that time of the year to invite more people into our community,” Clay shared. “Let’s do that together in the neighborhood.”

“I’d love to do every holiday, but some of them, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, will be harder, as some of us are heading home to be with our biological families,” another member said.

“Well, why don’t we make sure no one is alone on those holidays then?” someone replied. “If anyone doesn’t have a place to go, let’s invite them to join us in one of our celebrations.”

“Great! This all sounds good,” I shared. “Is that everything?”

We were about to move on when someone said: “Wait a minute! We’ve got to keep celebrating Jesus together.” I think we had all assumed that would happen. But we shouldn’t have assumed.

“So, how are we going to keep him at the center of our celebrations?” I asked.

“Let’s share Communion together every week,” Adam suggested. “We can choose to go to the same gathering time on Sunday and take the meal together.”

“That’s good, but can we also take time at our weekly meal to pause and give time to express the ways God has blessed us, and then celebrate all the evidences of his grace in our lives?” someone suggested.

“Yes. Let’s slow down and give thanks to him for his blessings regularly—as least weekly together at our meal.”

Jeff Vanderstelt, Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015).