“And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!”
Maurice Sendak
Yes, you will go out with celebration,
Isaiah 55:12
and you will be brought back in peace.
Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you;
all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
So it may have been ultra cold Saturday, and we may have had a small snow compared to places farther West and North, but Rebekah and I absolutely had fun and enjoyed the experience.
Max Retriever, as I have already noted, was very excited and wanted to play. But he wasn’t the only one! Rebekah eased her way out of the house a few minutes ahead of me, and she was waiting behind my car with a stack of snowballs, ready to – as the other Max said in Where the Wild Things Are – “Let the wild rumpus start”!!
That’s right, Rebekah is quite the Wild Rumpus aficionado.
Fortunately, I have known this about Rebekah since pretty much the first month I knew her. Not snowballs in particular but Wild Rumpusing in general!
Why, you may ask, is this a good story for Sunday morning? Because – and I am very much convinced of this – I believe enjoying this life, and having fun, is one of the purest and most honorable acts of worship we can offer.
God created us as beings hard wired to enjoy being alive. We honor God, then, inasmuch as we smile, and laugh, and have fun, and let our spirits dance.
“Play,” C.S. Lewis reportedly said, “is the serious work of children.” Well we are God’s children, each one of us, and I believe it does God’s heart good to see us throw ourselves into fun.
God said, “Let there be light.” God said, “Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song.” God said, “This creation is very good.”
God also gets behind this idea, expressed by Paul, “Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord…” (Colossians 3:23) That admonition absolutely includes fun…
and most certainly the occasional Wild Rumpus! – DEREK