Celebrations of Life: A Trifecta

I guess you could also call it The Circle of Life, yes that's a play on the Lion King. Seriously though May 1st was quite a day for people to celebrate the different stages of the lives that they lead. First let's start with celebration #1 & moi...

May 1st was my birthday! And I am now 31 years old, or young, however you want to look at it. It also happened to be the birthday of my roommate and one of the Teens in church (this is naturally it's own trifecta). But I digress. If you remember from last year my friends threw me a surprise birthday party and paid for me to accomplish my goal of skydiving. It was amazing! This year was a bit more mellow. I had friends come over for dinner and we laughed the evening away, spying on my neighbors, and eating this amazing trifle that Kali made for desert (GF chocolate chip brownies w/cheese cake filling and sprinkled with a crushed up Heath bar. You probably gained 5 pounds just reading that). It was a great evening! 1 Timothy 6:8 "And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."

Here is Sandi and I blowing out our fake candles on the desert.
Forget abt. my age alone, if you had combined both our ages
with candles we might have set off the fire alarm :P LOL

Sadly, celebration #2 I was unable to attend. It was my friend Regina's wedding day! Reg and I have been friends since kindergarten, sharing the experiences of Girl Scouts and Summer School (back when it was "cool" to attend that). We giggled over our infatuation over a certain Senior, back when we were freshman in HS, shared in the fun of Mrs. Frost's Shakespeare class and school spirit rally's and finally graduated into real life. Naturally over time it's easy to loose track of people, but this past Christmas we discovered that we were both going to be in our home town for the holiday and met up for coffee. It's always weird seeing people after 12 years, but after ordering our coffee's, which we waited an obscenely long time for, our conversation flowed smoothly and it was like no time had passed at all (I love friendships like that). Now obviously we have changed since we last spent serious time together, different life paths have a way of doing that to people, but there are still things that we hold in common, like our joy in photography and laughing over our own mistakes (we're very silly). I can't wait to see pictures. Aren't they cute?

Ecclesiastes 4:9 "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour."

Mr. & Mrs. Hoefman
CONGRATULATIONS REG!

Now celebration #3 most people might not count as a celebration because it actually involves the passing of a life. On April 20th, 2010 Mr. Glenn Sanders passed from this side of life and into eternity. A pretty great eternity actually. See Bro. Sanders knew where he was going after he died. He was a born again child of God, and trusted in Jesus and His power to save men from their sins. I only knew him personally for the past few years, since he was the father of my friend Ginger (whom I attend church with) but in his life he was a faithful preacher of the gospel, as well a missionary to Romania, Russia and the Reindeer people in the later years of his life. The memorial service held on Saturday was a great time of testimony for the life that he led and the lives of the people that he touched and a celebration in the fact that his life was well lived.

Jeremiah 40:31 "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Bro. Glenn Sanders
March 5, 1928 - April 20, 2010

Some people believe that there is no way of knowing that you're eternity can be secure, but if that were true then there would be no relevance to 1 John 5:13, which says "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." You can also know about eternity and what Jesus did for Bro. Glenn, and you, by clicking on this link if you're interested.

Life, as you can see, has various events to be celebrated; birth, marriage and death, the Lord is in them all. My 30's are setting up to be an interesting decade. Let the celebrations continue!