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What if one day you accomplished something really cool you had always wanted to do? And what if you decided to throw a party to celebrate? What if you threw the party in your parents' house because it could hold more people than your own?

What if you sat down and wrote out your guest list? What if you personally selected each person on the invitation list? What if you made sure your dearest, closest, oldest friends were included in your celebration?

What if you went out and bought decorations, food, and beverages for your fabulous celebration? What if you prepared the home so that your friends would have a marvelous time and feel warm and welcome?

What if all your friends called and said “Yes” they would love to come celebrate your big accomplishment with you? What if they said they could not wait; the party was going to be such fun?

What if on the day of the party you looked great, the house looked great and the food looked great? What if all that was needed was your friends to make your celebration really great?

What if at the time the party was to start the door bell didn’t ring? What if an hour after that there was still no knock on the door? What if an hour after that the phone rang and one friend was running late but soon would be there? What if that friend never would actually be there? What if the house stood empty and silent?

What if you threw a party and nobody came?

You might think back on it some twenty years later and though you laugh it off when you tell the story, somewhere deep in your solar-plexus it still smarts. You still love your friends all the same but the memory of THE party is still there. But, I tell you what, you learned a mighty big lesson that night.

You learned that invitations are important. Very important. They may not be all that important to you; in fact from time to time you might even seem a little burdened or weary of getting them. You learned they are important to the one who sent them.

You learned how rude it is to just brush off an invitation after someone went to all the trouble to include you in their party. For all you know they had to exclude someone else to include you. No, invitations should not be taken for granted.

That is not to say that you have to accept all invitations. For the sociable types they would never get a day’s rest, poor dears. But you learned if you do accept an invitation to a party then good manners dictates that you go.

What you want to know now is how well have you been putting these lessons to actual use in the intervening twenty years. So you apply it to any current invitations:

In fact, you have been invited to a party – a daily party. Well, a lifetime party actually. And you for one admit that you have been most inconsistent in your RSVPing. Some days you say “Yes” and show up, some days you say “Yes” and don’t show up. And then there are the days when you flat out RSVP with a big fat “No Thank You.” Turns out you're human.

You know what I’ve learned from your little no-one-came-to-my-party debacle? You are not the only one who is hurt by your not showing up to God’s party. Sure, you hurt yourself. You miss out on all the blessings God had in store for you that day. But God is just as hurt – if not more so – by your refusal to honor Him and your relationship. Just like you were, the host, when no one came to your party.

Everyday God offers us a richness of Himself that includes (but is not limited to) His love, mercy, protection, blessings and life everlasting. When that is turned down, even for a brief moment, He is hurt so deeply. When we don't show up and receive Him He is hurt.

We feel because God feels. He is not some mystical being that exists in the ether that has no tactile connection to us. We are created in His likeness, His image. We are creative because He is creative. We are joyous because He is joyous. And we get our feelings hurt because He gets His feelings hurt. Whatever happens to us - happens to our Heavenly Father first.

And that includes getting bummed out 'cuz no one came to the party.

The thing about parties is there’re easy. All a guest has to do is show up. Nothing else is required but mere attendance.

What if even one friend would have come to your party? What if just one person had shown up? My guess is you would not be reliving this nightmare scenario right now. Your feelings would not have been hurt. You would have had twenty years of joyous memories instead of twenty years of hurt.

What a difference showing up makes. Just showing up. How easy is that? There’s an invitation in the mailbox, will you be showing up to the party?

Hope to see you there. (I'll be the one near the queso dip, with the smarting solar-plexus.)

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