A Continual Feast

The cheerful heart has a continual feast.

Proverbs 15:15

“I want to be a clown! Can you make me a clown? Can I dress up too? Do you have any more big noses, what about funny hair?”

Such were the questions and excitement as the variety of children arrived at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas. “Armed and Hilarious” the Sunshine After Rain Ministries clowns came for the second year to the Family Retreat Camp. This year we were prepared to “enlist and convert” as many as possible to share in the army of joy. Being a clown allows people to “step outside” of themselves. For the shy person it gives new freedom, for the challenged an opportunity to evoke laughter instead of sorrow. Even if only for a moment lives were transformed into the Kingdom of Mirth.

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine Proverbs 17:22

This opportunity to be merrymakers gave the children and adults with donned wigs, noses, funny hats and noisemakers a chance to be different on their own terms. The foolishness and foibles were welcome. People laughed with them, smiled at them, and the attention was comfortable in its comedy. Whether or not the outside of us bears washable greasepaint or a non-discardable wheelchair, we are called as believers to see deeper to the inside not being hindered by what we see on the outside, growing beyond our perception of ourselves and of others to do the work that He has prepared for each of us.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalms 139:13-16

The scriptures tell us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. With the advanced discoveries of DNA, scientists have determined there are four thousand volumes worth of information in each cell. The Father knit each one of those together in the womb. Within five years each cell is totally replaced – how much more able is He to “mold us” into what He created us to be.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Like the old children’s poem the “Blind Men and the Elephant” depending on where they stood, the elephant appeared as a fan (he had a hold of the ear) a rope (one was swinging from the tail) and a wall (another stood against its immovable side). We all have a different perspective of God and who we are in His image. I need your vantage point to “round out” my picture not only of who God is but who I am in Christ as well. I can say with conviction there are no wheelchairs in heaven – but clowns - now that’s another story…

And purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:14