The word "Celebrate" always brings up images and memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas for me. No other time of the year gets the anticipation and preparation that these holidays get. What is interesting to me is that the reason I spend so much time anticipating and preparing for these holidays is to bring back the feelings and sentiment I had when I was a child. I want my children to have those same experiences. I want them to know the importance of family traditions. I want them to have the time to build relationships with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I want every one of these memories to be so good that they have the same excitement and anticipation I have at this time of year. (No pressure on myself at all ...right?)

As I have been getting ready to prepare for this holiday season, God has been working on my heart in the area of celebrations. He has led me to read the Old Testament books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. In the past these books have been difficult to read. However, as I have read through them this time the Holy Spirit has been pointing out some things I have not recognized in the past. Let me show you what I mean.

Exodus 8:9 - "Moses said, 'We shall go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we shall go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.'"

Exodus 12:14 - "Now this day must be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as you feast to the Lord; through out your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance."

Deuteronomy 6:4 - "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall talk of them when you sit on your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."

As I continued to read through both of these books I kept reading about the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, the Festival of Harvest, Passover, the Festival of Ingathering, and Jubilee. These festivals are at least a week long and they are times of rest, fellowship, and celebration of what God has done.

I was struck as I read about these festivals and commands to hold times of celebrations and remembrances that maybe the reason I am drawn to these times of celebration is because it fills a need that God created in us to celebrate. In the beginning He created the 7th day for us to rest, worship, and enjoy the fruit of our labor. As the Israelites entered the Promised Land, He commanded them to celebrate at different times of the year coinciding with important events and seasons.

Two reasons seemed to exist for these celebrations.  

The first reason is that the Lord told them to remember or memorialize something. In the same way that I want my children to understand the importance of family and family traditions, God wanted the Israelites to remember the miracles and acts He had done to bring Himself glory and show them His love. By celebrating the yearly feasts and festivals, they had natural occasions to talk about God's goodness, faithfulness, and love. I think about how we naturally talk about Thanksgiving and Christmas for months before and after the actual holidays. With the number of holidays the Israelites celebrated, they must have been constantly talking about the holiday that just ended or the one coming up. They were never without reasons to testify about the Lord.

The second reason seems to be that the Lord wanted His children to rest and enjoy their labor. Besides the command in Genesis for Adam and Eve to rest, He commanded the Israelites to rest and worship over and over during the many one to two week long feasts. It seems He wanted them to spend time with each other, to have fun, to relax, and to grow in their relationship with one another as well as with Him.

As the Holy Spirit began revealing these things to my heart, I began to get excited (and a little convicted). What would happen in my life and my family if we began to celebrate, really celebrate, the faithfulness, goodness, and love of the Lord throughout the entire year rather than just 2 or 3 times a year? Would I be as quick to worry about the future? Would mine, my husband's, and my children's faith, peace, and joy be overflowing because our focus was more often on the Lord and His works rather than ourselves? What would the lives of our church look like if all the families were more consistently focused on celebrating the goodness of the Lord?

As I think about the command we as parents and spiritual parents are given in Deuteronomy 6:4-6 to teach our children the commands of the Lord constantly and consistently, I wonder how our lives would change if we were not only teaching them but celebrating them within our individual, family, and church lives? How would our communities change as they watch us celebrate the Lord? The possibilities of what could happen excite me enough to try it a little bit this next year. The Lord has challenged my husband and I on the legacy we are leaving our children, so we were already going to be making some changes. I believe the encouragement and incentive to celebrate will only add more fun and excitement to this discipleship.

I pray that this Christmas season is one of renewal for you and your family. "Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord will be with you all!" (2 Thessalonians 3:16)

Meet me in the Devotional area or Forum and discuss the need to celebrate the great gift of all time!