They Wanted To Mark It

They wanted to make something of it and you talked them out of it in about thirty seconds.

Your wife said, we should do something. Your daughter said, can we get a takeout. And you said, it is not really a big deal, and, let us not make a thing of it, and, honestly, I would rather not.

And they said all right. And then you saw their faces, and it was not disappointment about food.

That was two weeks ago and you have not been able to leave it alone since, which is why you are reading this. Something happened in that kitchen and you were the one who did it.

I am not going to tell you to celebrate yourself, and I am not going to turn this into a lesson about humility, because that would take the good thing off the whole house. I am going to show you a father in a parable who did not ask anybody's permission to put a meal on.

Let us eat, and be merry

There is a line in the parable of the lost son where the father gives an instruction about food, and the reason he gives is disarming.

The son has come home. Before anybody has discussed anything, the father speaks.

And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry. (Luke 15:23, King James Version)

You are allowed to mark a good thing with a meal, and marking it has never once been showing off. Luke 15:23 has a father call for food and gladness as the first response to something good rather than as a reward for it, and the Holy Spirit is the one who brings that to a kitchen table with a meal set out and everybody talking.

Notice how fast it is. There is no discussion about whether the occasion warrants it. The father names the food and names the reason in one sentence and that is the whole of the decision.

And notice the word us. Let us eat and be merry. It is not a party for the son. It is a household eating together because something good has happened, which is a different thing and a better one.

You have a household that was asking for the us, and they have never once been asking to celebrate you. The Spirit of God is the one who makes a father's instruction in a parable reach a man who said let us not make a thing of it, and Luke 15:23 puts the food and the gladness in one line with no justification offered.

What you actually refused

Let me say what you turned down, because it was not a fuss and it was not attention.

They were asking to be glad with you. That is all that was on the table. A household noticed that something good had happened to somebody they love and they proposed a way of being in it with him, and he said no.

You were never being asked to accept praise, and they have never once wanted to make a fuss of you. The Holy Spirit is the one who shows a man what was actually being offered in his own kitchen, and the written word has a father call for a meal because something good has happened in Luke 15:23.

And here is the thing that matters more than any of it. A household that has three or four offers turned down stops making them. Not out of resentment. They simply learn what this house does, and the offers get quieter, and then they stop.

Your daughter will be seventeen in a year. There are not many more of these.

You are able to let them be glad with you, and letting them has never once been vanity. His Spirit is the one who lets a man accept something from the people who live with him, and Luke 15:23 has the gladness shared by a whole household rather than aimed at one person.

Put a meal on

So here is the exercise, and it is a meal and it is on purpose.

Tell them you want to mark the good thing. Use those words, or words like them, and do not apologize while you say it. This went well and I would like us to eat together because of it.

You are able to ask for one meal, and asking for it has never once been a fuss. Luke 15:23 has a father call for food and gladness with no justification attached, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes one plain sentence possible for a man who said no two weeks ago.

It does not have to be anything. The takeout your daughter wanted. Something on the table on a Friday. The point is not the food, it is that everybody at that table knows why they are eating it, which means you have to say the reason out loud.

Then say out loud that it was good. At the table, about your own work, in front of them. That is the part you will want to skip and it is the part they were asking for.

You were never going to be made proud by one meal, and it has never once happened to anybody. The Spirit of God carries a plain sentence past a reflex thirty years old, and the written word has a household eat together because something good has happened in Luke 15:23.