Celebrate! My Word for 2011

Every year, since I fully surrendered to the Lord, He has given me a theme for the year, usually before the month of January is over...an anniversary present marking the time that our deeper walk began. It is always an adventure, a delightful challenge that causes me to stretch and become stronger and deepen my understanding of Him, His Word, His purpose and desire, and causes transformation in the very fabric of my being.

And so it was with surprise that sometime during the holiday season of 2010, as the word "celebrate" began to reverberate through my spirit, that I knew that the Lord was giving my anniversary present early! Sometime earlier, I had noticed a seriousness about my face whenever I glanced in the mirror. I would pull my mouth into a smile, but I knew my face was reflecting a heaviness in my heart. I know what this grief is, and it isn't robbing my steady well of joy that the Lord imparts - but it IS there. And then comes the whisper "Celebrate"...gently, over and over again it comes "I want you to celebrate life"...

Then, while I was cleaning the 5 weeks worth of dust and dirt that accumulates where the Christmas decorations cover (please overlook this in the photos!), I was surprised by the flash of bright jeweled wings trying to flit away from the suction of my vacuum! An unanticipated joy welled up within to see this bright reminder of resurrection in the midst of the cold and dead and grey of winter. Where did he come from? And how had he managed to get inside!

He found a place to rest, slowly opening and closing his wings in time to my breathing.
Almost as if he was meditating,

maybe

about where he was going,


about where he had come from,



or about what his next moves might be at the moment...







Then all of a sudden he fluttered off and landed on the curtain, as if he were trying to find a place where his bright colors would be camouflaged,
where he might not stand out, but blend in...
where he might hide...










In another flash, he moved off the curtain, out of the shadows, letting his wings unfurl and reflect the intense rays of colored light found in the patch of sunshine landing on the window sill...allowing the full beauty of who he is to be illumined...



I realize I have been holding my breath, and that I have just received a wonderfully illustrated first installment of my theme of "celebrate" for the year...and my heart is peacefully thrilled....