Strike Up The Band

Nathan Stam
Communication/Children's Pastor

This past summer I took Aidan (our three year old) to his first movie at the movie theater. We went to see Wall-E*. I have to confess that one of my favorite things to do is go see a movie and sit down with a Coke and Nachos (Kristi prefers popcorn so we generally alternate what we get). It’s not an addiction per-say, but I do get the itch to see a movie quite often. I attribute this to my family having no TV in our house until I was in high school. It was probably good for my early childhood development, but it’s come back to bite me in my 20s and now, gulp, my 30s. It’s almost like my addiction to Mountain Dew, but not quite that bad.

The whole experience with Aidan was very cool. Just watching his face as he took everything in--all the other kids buzzing around, the BIG screen, buying his first little kid’s combo with a slushi and popcorn, and, of course, the seat that was a little too big and constantly threatened to swallow him up. Every few minutes during the film I’d hear a thwunk and look over to discover Aidan’s seat had once again snapped shut and he needed help escaping its clutches. During the previews he was dancing to one of the songs and he looked over at me with a big grin on his face and said, “I like it, Dad! I really do!” Now, this might seem like a silly or superficial example, but my heart swelled up big to see my son so filled with joy over something so small. It reminded me of a verse from Psalm 149:

“Hallelujah! Sing to God a brand-new song, praise him in the company of all who love him. Let all Israel celebrate their Sovereign Creator, Zion's children exult in their King. Let them praise his name in dance; strike up the band and make great music! And why? Because God delights in his people…”

A Father delighting in the joy of his son is just a whisper of how God delights in his children. He rejoices over us with singing! Life isn’t always going to be fair or pain-free, but this is an amazing truth—the God of the heavens delights in the joy and the praise of his children.

I’m sure I’ll have better examples of this as Aidan grows up, but this is what I’ve got right now and it’s enough. My heart is filled with gratitude to my Heavenly Father who cares for his children.

Now, I wonder what’s playing at Beaver Creek this weekend?

*Wall-E, by the way, was very very good. It didn’t have a lot of witty banter and dialogue, which was great for Aidan. It’s basically about robots cleaning up trash, zooming around in space, saving humanity—you know, all of those day-to-day mundane tasks that we all take for granted. I definitely recommend it.