Celebrate in the Darkness

I have a friend that says, “Life’s too short not to celebrate every little thing you can.” I like the way she thinks.

In the book of Numbers God calls on the Israelites to blow their trumpets for all kinds of occasions: going to war, at festivals, over offerings, etc. You can see the command here in Numbers 10:9-10

“When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies. Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed festivals and New Moon feasts—you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the Lord your God.”

 As you can see, I highlighted and underlined the New Moon feasts because that’s the celebration I wanted to talk about today. God, in his wisdom, created the sun and the moon to help us count the days, months, and years. The New Moon marked the beginning of each month. At that time, the Israelites would gather for a feast to celebrate the coming month. David talks about this in the book of 1 Samuel 20:5, “So David said, ‘Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow.’”

(This happened when David feared King Saul was trying to kill him.)

If you’ve ever been outside on the night of a new moon you know it’s REALLY dark. And yet, that’s when the Israelites celebrated the coming month. It’s easy to celebrate when the moon is full because it’s so pretty. But God doesn’t call us to worship the moon; He calls us to worship Him.

We all have dark seasons of the soul and yet, even then God calls us to worship Him. That is when we can celebrate what He is going to do to bring us through the darkness. That is when we can celebrate His unfailing love.

I just read the book, The Heavenly Man about Brother Yun, a Chinese man who has been imprisoned and tortured because of his faith. I can’t even fathom all that he’s been through and yet he said when the torture was just about to take him down he would start singing praises to God. (At this point in the book I felt unworthy of even calling myself a Christian.) But, Brother Yun said that when he would start singing praises the beatings and abuse was somehow easier to bear.

God will comfort us in our dark times. And while I don’t always understand why He allows us pain and suffering, I know that He is a good God and I trust that His purposes will be fulfilled as I continue to worship Him.

In light of this information I’m thinking this would be a good time to start celebrating the new moon—in the dark—thanking God for the coming month and the light that is on the way. Because the full moon that’s coming is beautiful, and God’s plans for us are always perfect.

The new moon dates for 2019 are:

• February 5
• March 6
• April 5
• May 4
• June 3
• July 2
• July 31
• August 30
• September 28
• October 27
• November 26
• December 25 (A double celebration day!)

How would it change your year if you took a little time to celebrate once every 30 days all that God is going to do? Why not try it and see what happens? Each time the new moon rolls around celebrate what God’s faithfulness in the days ahead. Thank Him for his goodness. And if you want to have a feast, I’ll all in favor of that, too.

Mark your calendars and let’s see what God does in 2019!

Special thanks to my friend, Mary, for cluing me in about this time of celebration.