Carnival Time
When Malc and I got married, we lived in Maldon in Essex, in a little house in a road close to the High Street. We bought the house very cheaply - about half the price of the average house at that time, because it needed a lot of work done to it.
We had lived there for two years when our daughter was born. It was very convenient for all the things that we needed, and we enjoyed the local park, which was very nearby, so we were able to take our daughter there in her pram and walk along the quayside to look at the boats moored there. Our daughter was about five months old when that summer came and that year there was a visiting circus which paraded down the High Street – right past our little house. The parade was to include the circus performers: jugglers, clowns, people walking on very high stilts, a couple of elephants and a few of the circus horses.
We went upstairs to get the best view of the parade and Malc brought me a chair so I could sit by the front window. He lifted the sash (slide up) window, so that we could see everything clearly and our little girl sat patiently on my lap, as we waited for the parade to come by.
We had bought little flags on sticks so that we could wave to the parade...
...and here they come...
We saw the Horses, and the elephants and we waved our flags and we cheered and then the music started and our daughter started to bounce up and down on my lap with excitement. She loved it!
Then came past came the Carnival Queen for that year – dressed in her best frock sitting on her ‘Royal’ throne on a flatbed lorry. The Carnival Queen looked up, spotted us and she waved to us as she went past, with the jugglers and the other entertainers and the marching bands of marching girls and drummer boys. As young as she was our daughter absolutely loved hearing the exciting marching music and seeing all the different people and animals going past and she bounced up and down on my lap in sheer delight.
We only stayed in that house for about another year or so after that, because I was expecting another baby (and this house only had two small bedrooms) so we moved out of town, and we managed to buy a nice three bedroomed house in a little village where house prices were lower.
We loved our first little house, but it was time to move on. The end of one era and the beginning of another. A new beginning.
The Bible speaks about another more wonderful parade, or procession.
In Psalm 68 vv 24-27 we read:
Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary - the singers in front, the musicians last, between them young maidens playing tambourines:
“Bless God in the great congregation, the Lord, O you who are of Israel's fountain!”
There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.
The sanctuary is where in the Old Testament, sacrifice was made to find to the glory of God who is worshipped and praised for His greatness, His mercy and the forgiveness of sin.
In the New Testament we read about a new beginning available for each one of us. We can come into the sanctuary (God’s presence) but no longer with the need to make sacrifice for ourselves. Because Jesus gave His own sinless life as the perfect sacrifice, we can worship and praise Him for His greatness, His mercy and the forgiveness of our sins.
We have so much to thank the Lord for and so much to look forward to in eternity.
And it will be way better than any parade we have seen on this earth.