DAY 40: There's a Better Party Yet to Come by Kevin Wood

DAY FORTY: "There’s a Better Party Yet to Come" by Kevin Wood

The date was Saturday, November 2, 1985. I turned 9 years old. Sitting around the kitchen table in our modest Southwest Texas home were two friends from across the street. My birthday cake sat in the midst of us, nine candles flickering, the wax drizzling down from the wick. The two birthday gifts I had received were sitting at my side. The first gift – and unfortunately the best gift - was a Dallas Cowboys sweatshirt given to me by one of the two friends. I didn’t even like the Cowboys. I was a Bears fan. I can’t remember now what the other gift was. Prior birthday parties had been better attended and more exciting. This party was to be the worst party I had ever had to that point in my life. This was certainly not the way I intended to celebrate my big day.

The birthday of November 2^nd was somber because of the deathday of November 1^st. On Friday, November 1, 1985, my mother traveled 180 miles east to a hospital in San Antonio, Texas. There she gave birth to a little boy named Joshua Micah Wood. He was to be my fifth brother, but I never had the chance to meet him because he died at birth. Complications with the umbilical cord turned what should have been a happy moment to a dreadful one. Tears of joy were replaced by tears of grief. The events of November 1^st cast a shadow over the events of November 2^nd, as a day of death eclipsed the memory of my day of birth.

In my self-focused nine-year-old mind, I struggled to understand why my day couldn’t be bigger. From my perspective, there was still reason to be happy. I have to admit that as a child I had a tendency to be selfish, though I very rarely voiced it. But as I sat there with the handful of family and friends who made it to my party, one thought kept rolling in the back of my mind. I may not have termed it exactly like this, but this is what I felt: There’s a better party yet to come.

I wasn’t sure when it was going to happen. I had no idea what family and friends would come. But I just knew that my 10^th birthday or 12^th birthday or 16^th birthday would be a far grander gala than my 9^th birthday had been. Surely, a better party was on the horizon. I just had to wait for the grief of November 1, 1985 to subside. We’d never forget what happened that day, but it would not always overshadow what had been a special day to me the eight years before.

If I could share one thought with, Trace Crossing, as we celebrate tonight our 2^nd birthday, it would be this. There’s a better party yet to come. Sure the cupcakes we handed out last night were delicious – just ask the kids. And the white footballs flying all over the Ballard Park night sky were exciting. And nothing beats being with my faith family on October 1^st of any year. But the parties we hold here pale in comparison to the true celebration that will take place when we are with Christ. There’s a better party – a much better party – yet to come.

Our world still lives in the shadows of the deathday, when Christ hung on a cross to pay for our sin. Yes, he did rise and in so doing defeated death, and that is certainly something worth celebrating. But the celebration I am speaking of is so much bigger and so much better than anything we could ever organize or orchestrate here on earth. For one day, it won’t be the Ballard Park sky alive with footballs – it will be the global sky splitting wide open, the “clouds rolling back as a scroll”, and Christ Himself will descend. And we won’t be handing out cupcakes or passing out fliers saying “Come to the party”. For in that day, the party will come to us. And unlike my 9^th birthday, there will be absolutely no disappointment with the gifts. For we will receive in that moment the single greatest gift anyone could ever receive. To be with the one who gave Himself for us. He will come to us so we can come to Him.

There’s a Better Party Yet to Come… Let’s Celebrate with That in Mind!

My Prayer for Trace Crossing:

Dear Heavenly Father, Help us to live with the expectant hope of a greater life with You. In Your house, Father, are many mansions - and You have gone to prepare a place for us so that where You are we might also be. Give us the absolute assurance of knowing our hope is secure in You. But in the time we have here in this world, give us the disciplined compassion of Christ necessary to reach out to all people for You. Break our hearts for those who have yet to accept Your invitation. In Your Name we ask this... Amen.