We utter our first word. We take our first step. We have our first birthday. We eat our first bite. We score our first goal. We write our first letter. We survive our first school day.
We experience our first week of camp. We get our driver’s license. We graduate from high school. We are accepted into college. We are offered our first job. We get married. We have our first kid.
What if we lived out these experiences and never shared our excitement, never gave a high five, never tweeted it, never ate a cake, never wore a silly hat, never got dressed up, never invited our friends, never got a scratch & sniff sticker, never gave a hug, never received a trophy, and never made a fool out of ourselves on the dance floor?
That would be ridiculous.
You see, we were made to celebrate.
We were created to rejoice. Wired to party. Deep in the core of our being is a desire to be celebrated and to celebrate others. Something about it feels right. To honor and be honored. It feels good.
Has a party ever been thrown for you and you were embarrassed? Maybe you felt undeserving. If we are honest, sometimes we think, “If they only knew me…”
All throughout the Scriptures we find a God who is really into celebrating people. Not just anyone. But especially people deemed unworthy. The outcast. The forgotten. The unpopular. The ‘sinners’.
In Luke 15 we read about a father who celebrated the homecoming of his wayward son. The one who took a third of his father’s inheritance and spent it all in wild living. How did the father respond?
He ran to him. Kissed him. Hugged him. He said, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate! My son was lost but now is found!”
Get this: Our Father waits for us. He thinks about us. He is filled with compassion for us. He runs to us. He clothes us with his love. He throws a party for us. He celebrates us.
Like the son, may we not be embarrassed to come home. May we find ourselves in the loving arms of our Father. May we rest in His forgiveness. May we allow ourselves to be celebrated. Not because of anything we have or have not done. But simply because we were lost. And now we’re found.
So where are you and I in this story? How far are we from home? Maybe some of us are like the older brother. So close. But still so far away.
Verse 28 says, “But the angry older brother refused to go into the party.” This son did all the ‘right’ things but for the ‘wrong’ reasons. While the younger son’s lostness was his wild living, the older son’s lostness was his pride.
In the same way, some of us stand outside the party bitter and jealous and hard-hearted and self-righteous and stubborn. Maybe we don’t freely and recklessly and generously celebrate others because deep down inside we think we are better. We deserve the party. They don’t.
So may we recognize our lostness. May we allow our Father to throw a party for us. To forgive us.
And when we receive the love of our Father, we find ourselves giving love to others.
So let’s break out the flowers and kazoo’s and silly hats. Let’s uncork the wine and kind words and wrapping paper. And pull out all the stops. Because God pulled out all the stops for us…
“As I have loved you, you must love one another.” John 15:12