My mom is a leap year baby, so this year, she had a “real” birthday. This was cause for celebration, and Terry suggested we go up, get Michala and all of us go to dinner, together. Michala has such a full plate between her classes, internship, job, church and small group, so we had to plan this around her schedule. As it turned out, we were able to celebrate one night just a couple of days before Mom’s “real” birthday. The evening was absolutely perfect.
We had a delicious meal, but more importantly, we had a wonderful afternoon and night, together. As we were all talking and laughing, I looked around the table and wanted to take a mental picture. It was one of those great nights I never wanted to forget. At one point, I just reached over and squeezed Michala’s hand, wanting to take it all in, and freeze time.
I am a dessert lover, I’m not going to lie. But I hardly ever order it, anymore, because I’m always too full and just don’t have room for dessert. Every time I read a delicious dessert on a menu, I’ll tell Terry, “We need to come here for a date night just for desserts!” But this night, the desserts were served in small shot glasses, and let’s face it. Mom only has a “real” birthday every four years, so I decided to splurge. In fact, all of us ordered desserts except for Mom! Can you believe it?
Anyway, our waiter was wonderful, and he brought each of us a glass of complimentary champagne for Mom’s special celebration and he told us a story I had never heard. He said, “Do you know why we clink our glasses when we make a toast?” None of us knew, so he proceeded to tell us. He said, “All of our senses are celebrated with a toast. First, we see the glass and the champagne bubbles. This is the first sense, sight, celebrated. Second, we lift our glasses to our nose and we smell the champagne. This is the second sense; smell, celebrated. Third, we touch the glass, and we feel the bubbles in our mouth. This is is third sense, touch/feeling, celebrated. Fourth, we taste the champagne when we sip it. This is the fourth sense of taste, celebrated. But the last sense, hearing, was not part of the celebration, so we raise our glass and “clink” it with one another for the fifth sense, hearing, to be celebrated.
I thought this information was just too good to keep to myself and had to share it with you all.
Sometimes, the truly unforgettable moments are not glamorous or expensive, or extravagant. They are the simple, mundane moments. The moments gathered around the table with our loved ones, for example, are cause for celebration and praising God!
“Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!” - Psalm 147:1 (NIV)
Four years ago this summer, my precious mom suffered a heart attack. Talk about the silent killer; Dad is the one with high blood pressure, not Mom. But they were under so much stress; taking care of my Grandmother who had suffered multiple strokes and needed around the clock care from my parents was exhausting. Plus they ran a business they owned. It was just too much and Mom’s very strong heart finally said, “Enough.” And she had a heart attack.
As I sat at the table that night and we celebrated Mom’s birthday, it was an emotionally joyful night. She’s still here.
When our waiter handed out the glasses of champagne, before he walked away he said, “This is so you can make a toast for the birthday girl!”
I turned to Terry and asked, “Do you want to make the toast?” He said, “I think we should each celebrate Mom!”
So we did. We went around the table and we each toasted this beautiful woman.
Life is filled with triumphs and tragedies. But without fail, I praise our Heavenly Papa. He has given us so many reasons to be grateful, through the good and the bad.
I’ll “clink” to His goodness, all day, every day!