I sit right now looking out at a beautiful blue, cloudless sky and ocean waves crashing on the smooth sandy shore outside the window of a three-story beach house. Jeff, my dad, and my brother are down on the beach with the kids, the babies are napping, my mom and aunt are on a walk, my cousin’s working on his laptop next to me on the couch, my uncle is enjoying the massage chair, and my sister-in-law and I are blogging. Can I please stay here forever?
I finally get to write about something I’ve been anticipating for months. My dad’s birthday was Sunday, and so for the past couple months we’ve been scheming a surprise. My brother, sister-in-law and their two kids, planned a secret road trip out here from Utah where they live. They arrived at our house and we hid their car in our garage. My parents came over for a casual birthday dinner, thinking it would just be Jeff and me and the kids, and we shocked them by opening the door and –surprise!–they were all here. We then further surprised them but announcing that we were leaving in the morning for 3 days at a luxury beach house, all of us–along with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Thirteen of us total, sharing a huge three-story beach house overlooking the ocean in Lincoln City.
We’ve all been so afraid we’d slip and let out the secret, but amazingly, no one did, and my parents were absolutely stunned. The whole trip has been a God-thing; everything from the most perfect sunny weather, to everyone being able to get off work, to kids sleeping soundly and having a blast together. It’s been one of those precious memory-making times that we’ll treasure forever. And… vacationing with grandparents is always the best–built in babysitters!
At the same time I’ve been reading through Ezra and Nehemiah and this morning I read about how after the book of the Law was read, they basically threw a party like none other: “Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.”
I’m thankful that God loves a feast, a party, a time of wholesome and exuberant rejoicing, a time of reveling in the goodness of God.
That’s what this time has been for me. To the people in the book of Nehemiah, they worked hard then played hard. They committed themselves to work, then celebrated with all their might. The last few months have definitely been a season of hard work for the Pattersons– on all fronts, this vacation has just been a well-timed kiss from God. We’re so thankful to be here. It’s reminded me how important both Sabbath times are–being diligent to add a consistent time of rest into my weekly schedule–and celebration/feast times are–times to temporarily set aside thoughts of budgets or diets–and go all out and celebrate God’s lavish love for us with those we love. That second one is hard for me, because it is feels impossible for me to separate myself from frugality, but God reminded me of it in a special way when I showed up for our 6am morning prayer time on Monday, before we left for the beach. As we finished praying and walked away, one of the women in our group pulled me aside and said quietly, “God told me to give you all the money in my wallet. Here.” What?! First off, what a generous, amazing woman of God to respond to God’s prompting in such a selfless, obedient way. Secondly, how humbled and blessed I was by both her kindness, and by the clear message from God that this trip, this time of celebration and feasting, was from Him. And in case I was worried about buying an extra flat of strawberries for our shortcake, He had us covered.
I guess I”m sharing all this just because I want to share how good and gracious our God is. I know not everyone is on vacation this week, but I do hope and pray that each of your lives are punctuated by times of Sabbath rest and by times of celebration and feasting, when appropriate. How good it feels to work hard and play hard, to work hard and rest well. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a long walk on the beach to take before enjoying a bowl of fresh strawberries. Perhaps you could enjoy a bowl of something special today too.