a shiny noise-maker night.

One of my best friends had a birthday today.  Since his family is in California, his pseudo-family stepped in.  Gag presents dominate: a Justin Bieber poster and a Taylor Swift calendar.  (You should have seen his look of despair when he realized who graced the poster.  Priceless.)  Kayla made him a delightful chocolate cake with sprinkles on top.  We blew up a whole bag of little balloons and littered the floor with them.  Thomas contributed his brand new games, and I'd wager the entire building heard us yelling "ONE!" and "TWO!" during Pit.  In my experience, there are two people during every game of Pit who band together and make sly, under-the-table trades: tonight, Rachel and James fulfilled the roles.  Ernst was a good sport and played all the games he hated.  I wore a shiny gold noise-maker in my hair and thought, "I like birthdays."

it's ok.

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up..."

Isaiah 6:1

Apparently, Uzziah was a good dude.  Confident, successful, good to his people.  He pushed back the enemy, established new territory, and made everybody happy.  He had an extensive reign, and basically was faithful and good the entire time. 

But then, as is unavoidable, he died.  And everybody panicked.  His son hadn't exactly learned how to be a good king from his dad, and nobody wanted Loser-Son on the throne.  I think maybe even Isaiah was a little freaked out.  

BUT!  He saw the Lord - "sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up."  And he realized:  we don't need Uzziah, we don't need his worthless son - we have the LORD. The Lord God, who has taken us from the land of Egypt, and established us as a people, and watched over us all this time.  So why do we freak out about who will rule over us?  We have the Lord.  

Yeah.  We have the Lord.  And He is ruling over us, so we need not fear. 

Sometimes learning the background of a passage makes it so much more marvelous.