I’ve just arrived home after a service installing new Canons into the Cathedral. Friends and family were there in force, celebrating with all those involved. Celebrations are important. Whether it is a birthday, an anniversary or anything else. It’s important to mark significant moments and thank God.
Celebration is important to our spiritual and physical life. It is easy to live a life of routine, which can eventually make our faith become dry and mundane, making us just see the negatives in everything.
Each day we can find something to celebrate. Celebrate as an elderly friend of mine with multiple illnesses did – as he drew back the bedroom curtains each morning he said “Thank you God that I am here to celebrate another day.”
Celebrate when you hear the birds in the morning. Celebrate as you see the new flowers growing. Take time to celebrate each day – eat a piece of chocolate, take some tea and cake outside in the garden. Look for something every day, to celebrate and thank God for.
Celebration is part of the life of all God’s faithful people. In the Old Testament we see people celebrating with the festivals God had given them, celebrating by dedicating everything to God. The shepherds and wise men celebrated Jesus’ birth bringing gifts. Jesus himself went and joined in the celebrations at a wedding.
It is good and proper to have routine times to celebrate God, as we do on a Sunday, but it is also good to have special times of celebration more often.
Psalm 118 reminds us ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it’
Prayer: Lord, today I want to look back with thanks and celebrate all the great things you have done for me…