Happy Ricktober!
This month is a special month for us. It is Rick’s birthday month and our wedding anniversary. We love to celebrate all month. As many of you know, Rick has coined the month as “Ricktober”. It’s silly and fun but celebration is also something very important to us. It’s a priority, a core value. We always want to take time to celebrate the good: the good of our Father in giving us life, healing our souls, bringing us to each other, and revealing His extraordinary love. We keep getting astounded by His loving goodness. Celebrating is a great way to remember these things.
Although we travel every month for ministry, this is the one time of year that we take a fun trip for vacation and rest. At the end of this month, we will be joining our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter Ellie in Ireland where her other grandparents live. We are looking forward to attending and celebrating a family member’s wedding there.
Travel, adventure, exploration, celebration are fun for us. These are things that make us feel alive and growing, learning and enjoying the things of this life. Admittedly, life is not always easy, in fact it can be quite painful, so the good parts of it are precious and worthy of our attention and celebration. And we don’t always have grand things to commemorate so we rejoice over the small things, like the growth we see in ourselves and in those around us, the “little” blessings like our granddaughter’s mischievous laugh, our friends’ sense of humor, our flowers still growing under the front window when we get home from a trip. These are markers that we are alive and in God’s world to enjoy and explore and experience.
When we look at the Prodigal Son story in the Bible, the Father threw a huge party for the returning son. It was good food, and fine clothes, lots of friends, music and dancing. It was freedom to enjoy all the gifts He has given. We are eternally invited to join that party. And the two of us are just crazy enough to do that.
It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when God returned Zion's exiles. We laughed, we sang, we couldn't believe our good fortune. We were the talk of the nations - "God was wonderful to them!” God was wonderful to us; we are one happy people.” (Psalm 126:1-3, MSG)
Friend, we are wishing you a very Happy "Ricktober"!! May you celebrate all the goodness around you today, the big and the small things.
We love and appreciate you,