From the Pulpit: Anniversaries are time to look back, celebrate and say, 'thank you'

Last weekend (Friday, July 21 through Sunday, July 23) Brandon celebrated the city’s 50th anniversary. As it goes with a lot of anniversary celebrations, there were lots of events encouraging an attitude of celebration this past weekend in Brandon, including a city picnic, fireworks, games and races, a street dance, and lots of opportunities for members of the community to celebrate and interact with one another.  

Anniversaries are important times to “pause” to take note of, remembering and celebrating a significant event in the past.  Maybe it is an anniversary of some formal actions taken to create a city, such as Brandon. Or maybe it is an anniversary celebrating the courage and vision of thousands of people who came together in a revolution, under a Declaration of Independence, to form a country. Or maybe it is an anniversary of a more intimate, smaller nature, celebrating the union of two lives in marriage; celebrating the love and blessings that have happened ever since that marriage 10 or 25 or 50, or maybe even 75 years ago. An anniversary might celebrate the formation of a business, or maybe of a congregation, such as the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Beaver Valley Lutheran Church last month. We might also pause to recognize the anniversary of an infamous event, like what happened in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Anniversary events often encourage us to pause and say, “thank you”. If we really pause long enough to consider how our lives are better or maybe impacted because of the event that happened some number of years ago, we will see God’s hand in the event, giving various individuals the strength or courage or grace or love or determination to bring about the “adventure”; the creation of a city, or a congregation, or a marriage, or a country. As we look back over the years since the event, the anniversary celebration will, in so many ways, be about the blessings that God has bestowed upon those who are celebrating an anniversary.  An anniversary is an opportunity to say, “Thank you, God, for the devotion and love you have given. Thank you, God, for the courage and dedication, the vision and insights you have put within our lives together. Thank you, God, for how you have seen us through some challenging times, as well as for how you have given us countless gifts that have comforted, encouraged, and given us life.” 

Anniversaries are times to look back and remember, to celebrate. Anniversaries are times to pause in a moment of silence and know that God is in our midst, creating and working through us to accomplish awesome events; events that we will remember and celebrate one year after another.