Paths and Parades...

I love a parade. I guess the last one I actually attended was a neighborhood 4th of July parade that has been a tradition for the community I grew up in since I was three or four years old. It's a pretty big deal because the mayor, local dignitaries, firefighters, police, riders on horseback, and other special people proceed through the local streets right along with the children from Coulwood who've decorated their bicycles, tricycles and four-wheelers.

One year, my beloved youngest sister rode a wagon float as Little Miss Lima Bean in said parade. I think she was four years old at the time and the title was well deserved because that's all she ate. Lima beans were the staple of her diet, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I actually witnessed her fall asleep at the dinner table on more than one occasion because she stubbornly refused to taste anything except her Lima's. Libby's (her Lima bean brand of choice) should have done commercials featuring the little lima lover, but sadly, they never learned about their fiercest fan.

Today's passage is a follow up to the lavish, extravagant parade that proceeded through the streets as the Ark of the Covenant of God was brought to Jerusalem. The details of the processional paint a picture of quite an event that I imagine made headlines throughout the land.

After the grand parade, these chapters from Psalms are highlighted in the reading plan: 1, 2, 15, 22, 24, 47, and 68.

Every word of these chapters warrants careful reading, but I cannot resist the urge to post the entire first Psalm, because if you read these words and take them to heart applying them to your life, you will be walking the path of the wise. And what better way to parade?

1 Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
2 But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.
3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.
4 But not the wicked!
They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Sinners will have no place among the godly.
6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly,
but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Father, help me and those I love walk the path of the wise, the godly, the upright...and thank you for your promise of fruit for the lives of those who delight in you!