'Wish it was the 4th of July'

On a good Sunday afternoon our youth group meets in the park.  Sun, fresh air and grass between one's toes is a glorious thing. Once we went to a park where homeless people were and passed out sack lunches and prayers. On this day we had a guitarist and we worshiped under a gazebo of sorts.  A young family with two small children kept an ear on us as they played nearby.  Then we opened our Bibles right there in front of God and everyone. We discussed how odd John the Baptist must have looked dressed in camel hair and eating locusts dipped in honey.  We considered his message of hope, pointing the way to Jesus. ‘I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit,’ he preached.  Then God spoke up - in front of Himself and everyone, ‘You are my beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’  Those words from a father settle deep in the heart of any son or daughter but here they carry deeper significance.  Jesus, who always listened to His Father, would carry that good will to a cross and make an exchange - His happy standing with God for our sins. It was a profound moment in the Word. Then we shared prayer requests and prayed together. Later we played ‘ultimate Frisbee’.  Two young men enjoying the park got sucked into the action and soon joined us. This was followed by a water balloon war.  All in all we worshiped, we studied, we prayed, and we played.  It was a good Sunday in the park kind of like the 4th of July!