Celebrate

This rooster has been named Lucky, because at the start of the month he was attacked by a dog that wandered into my backyard.

Some of Lucky's feathers. There were plenty more scattered around the block.  The rooster and his friends were lucky that my husband and I were home at the time, and could give chase to the dog that was attacking Lucky.  We managed to catch the dog with feathers still in its mouth, there was no doubt about what the dog had been up to.  Fortunate too that the dog was a small terrier something and used to being handled by people and not yet whiley enough in attack to go for people it didn't know.

My chooks have chosen to be free range birds, they can fly out of their pen any time they want to, one day soon  the nine amigos will have that freedom limited. I don't like discovering the eggs. Hard to work out how long they might have been in that nesting spot.

Not good news for the dog that attacked.  The law of the land is very tough on dogs that attack. First up, owners are meant to keep their dogs in their yard or a  pen, and owners are responsible for any damage that dog causes. Unfortunately the owners loose their dog because of the attack, no-one wants a dog around that attacks another animal, the only outcome for dogs that do this is death.  Harsh but for the safety of everyone, necessary. 

In this case though, the owners were fortunate that no major damage was done to the rooster or other chooks or people. Lucky has survived the attack and his feathers are slowly growing back. He is currently walking around the yard with two other rooster (yes two too many, but that is another story) and six hens.

For a moment Lucky was in a really bad place, and what does a story about a bad place have to do with the theme "Celebrate"?

It has everything to do with how Christian are supposed to handle bad places, and I am not making any claims about easy and just get down and celebrate, because when circumstance seems to be grinding down on you "Celebrating" is the last thing that you feel like doing.

Silly isn't it, to be encouraged to "Celebrate" when your in a bad place, but this is exactly what we are asked to do. Paul and Silas practised what they were preaching. There they were, recently arrested, flogged, and feet clamped in stocks. Now Paul and Silas didn't yell insults and threats to the guards, instead Paul and Silas prayed and sang songs of praise.  What happened next?  An earthquake rattle the prison, doors flew open and chains broke loose, everyone in the prison had been given the freedom to leave, but Paul made sure everyone in that prison stay put.

The most amazing thing about this story is that prayer and songs to God gave a powerful witness and provided Paul and Silas freedom in a bad place, spiritual and physical.  The celebrating also bought a guard or two into the Christian family, this is something to think about.  (Acts16:16-40)

Now all I need to do is practice Celebrating and Praising God, sounds easy enough, except that some places are not all that easy to get out of, circumstances that we can't control, like too much rain, or not enough rain, wildfires, all cause us stress and doubt.  Psalm 107 leaves me in no doubt that we are to praise and "celebrate".  God rescues those in trouble, and like Paul and Silas, the rescue can come in an unexpected way, and also come with a challenge, Paul and Silas could have left that prison, fled with all the other inmates, but that would have killed their guards because they had failed to keep the prisoners in prison.  The guards would not have become members of the family of God either.

Give thanks, "Celebrate", God is snapping our chains and bringing us into the safety of his harbour!