Today is our annual Celebrate Life Day. Every year it is a day of mixed joy and pain, laughter and weeping. Every year. This year. We celebrate life today because four years ago Tanzen was born. We celebrate life today because four years ago we almost lost Crystal to her stroke. This year we celebrate life because we have watched our beloved Ita step from this world into her eternal home. 

We take our celebration seriously. Today is not a day that we wallow in sentimentalism or bask in trivialities. 

We will not hold our daughter’s hand and think of how lucky we are.

We will not step into the sunshine with Crystal and forget that she can walk.

We will not relegate Ita’s existence to a place in our hearts or happy memories. Whether or not her memory lives on within me makes no difference. Her existence has not ended.
No. We will take this celebration seriously because we take life seriously. We take eternity seriously. We take joy seriously.
We will not forget that we are more than particles and energy.

We will not forget that every breath we have is a gift. 

We will not forget that evil is real and not an opinion. 

We will not forget that death is painful and will one day be eliminated.

We will not forget that life is hard and tears sting.

Today we celebrate life.
We celebrate because the Maker has given us one more day. We celebrate because he has promised that there is more to come. Celebrate with us!

“Societies in which the state has adopted and promoted one true faith have often been oppressive. Governments have used the authority of the “one true religion” as a warrant for violence and imperialism. Yet ironically the wedding of church and state ends up weakening the privileged religion rather than strengthening it. When people have religion imposed on them through social pressure instead of choosing it freely, they often embrace it in a halfhearted or even hypocritical way” (Kindle loc 101).

Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical by Timothy Keller