Like the Rose Parade Floats

I don't know what you normally do on New Year's Day but I know that some of you wake up to watch the Rose Parade on TV.  When our kids were young, we used to do that.  Sometimes we would even go to the parade.  But now that they're older, we're lucky if we get up in time to catch the replay.  While we're sleeping, over 60 million people watch the parade on TV and hundreds of thousands line the streets to see it in person.  We're always shocked when we finally wake up and see the crowds, the buses, the helicopters, and the bands in our neighborhood. 

We happen to live in Pasadena near the end of the parade route which is kinda cool.  So a couple days afterwards, I took a walk by the area where they park the floats for viewing.  I was amazed by how creative the floats are.  And to think they're all made of flowers, seeds, and natural material.  But as I peered through the fence (because I didn't actually buy a ticket to go inside ), I was struck by how each float tells a unique story, a story conceived by whoever designed it.  And we get a sense of the story just by seeing the float or watching it move if it's animated.  The float may tell a story of community or culture or nature or innovation or something else.

I think the same about us.  Our lives are meant to tell a story.  We're meant to reflect the image of the one who created us.  Genesis 1:27 says "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them."  G.K. Chesterton wrote, "I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story, there is a story-teller."  God is writing a story that is still ongoing.  We are invited into His story of creation, redemption, and transformation.  May our lives tell the story everyday of the One who loved us, made us, and saved us.  

Here are some of the floats I could see through the fence.    
             
Pastor Darren