A Spirit of Celebration

Training for Today: Rest

Devotion: A Spirit of Celebration

Are you ready to celebrate? We’re almost there!


When I think of the word “celebrate”, I think of a song by Kenny Loggins that’s frequently played around Christmas time called, “Celebrate Me Home”. It’s about a person far-removed from his loved ones who somehow wishes that their spirit of celebration could bring him home. (It’s difficult to be away from those we love, but the holidays seem to bring out those feelings even more!)

Yesterday, we talked about remembering those we’ve lost. Today, we’ll take it one step further and celebrate those loved ones home in our memories. Let’s celebrate who our loved ones were and what they meant to us. Let’s celebrate them as God’s workmanship. Let’s celebrate them as lives that were meant to influence us on our spiritual journeys. As it says in Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We can’t ignore the end of life as an opportunity for God to accomplish his purposes!

While we celebrate our loved ones home through our memories, let’s also celebrate that our loved ones are in their eternal home in heaven:

3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we can celebrate life. We can celebrate the lives of those who have been with us. We can celebrate the memories we have that keep that life with us. But, most importantly, we can celebrate the eternal life that our loved ones are living; we can celebrate them home!

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that, through your Son Jesus, I can celebrate the fact that the loved ones I’ve lost are at home with you in heaven. Thank you also for the ability to celebrate life through the blessing of memories. Amen.