During the afternoon on Sunday the buzz increased as everyone put on their best clothes for Deepa's birthday party. Relatives had come from both Deepa and Sudhakar's side of their family. So as is custom, the birthday began with a prayer meeting! A time of praise to God and hearing from His Word. I spoke on The Image of God. From Gen 1:26-27 we praised God that Deepa & Sudhakar mirror God to us in the way they love each other and enjoy each other. They mirror God to us as their love spills out from their marriage and touches each of us, catching us up into their joy. And the child Deepa carries will mirror God as he/she thinks God's thoughts after Him, growing in understanding of how God's world works. And as he/she feels God's feelings of delight in wonderful 
sunsets, and awesome mountains; but also shares God's feelings of deep sadness at the pain people cause each other. He/she will look for a hero... someone who will show him/her what it looks like to be a true human being. If a boy he may look to Sachin Tendulkar or Brett Lee! A girl might look to a famous scientist like the ones who have recently sent the first Indian rocket into orbit around the moon! But none of these are perfect people. This child's mummy and daddy will point him/her to Jesus the True Image of God and the True Human Being as seen in Hebrews 1&2. The exact representation of God, who put on flesh so that he might provide purification for our sins.
The sermon over... the party begins!
A cake, with candles that relight themselves after being blown out, and which is then force-fed to the older guests!
A can of snow spray over the guests.
Mountains of chicken byriani and sweets wrapped in silver and sprinkled with crushed pistachio nuts.
A gift from the students of a golden pendant with D printed on it... D for Deepa, D for Didasko.
The guest of honour and her husband serve the food and only eat after all the guests are finished.
I love the simplicity, I love the way God is central to every celebration, I love the warmth, and I loved the chocolate cake!
3 comments:
He is a God who loves celebration! He must love India.... :-)
Hi Peter
Sounds like a great party. We would have loved being there to celebrate with Deepa. The sermon was a good noe too! My experience of preaching at a birthday party was for a five year olds party! Things certainly are a bit different in India - and there's lots we could learn, I'm sure.
David
Hi Pete,
Michael wanted to join the party when he saw the photos. God's people celebrating!!! Always great.
See you soon.
Sharon
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