Most people like invitations! I know I do, because most invitations are good or fun invitations. For example (speaking as a woman), a close friend gets engaged and one of the first things to cross my mind is, ‘I wonder if I will be invited to the wedding,’ or a family member happens to win a holiday for five at a luxury resort (which sadly hasn’t happened to any of my family members!) and, again, the question is ‘I wonder if I will be invited’.
There are all sorts of invitations. Obviously, there are the usual invitations to birthdays, weddings, christenings, etc, but nowadays invitations extend to house-warming parties, baby showers, ‘office-warming’ parties, boat-warming parties, candle parties, tupperware parties. My sister even had a ‘kitten welcoming party’.
There are endless reasons to invite people along to celebrate something (any excuse for a party is a good excuse!). And, like I say, the invitations are generally for something good! We don’t often sit down and think, what’s the catch?
On the other hand, if a card drops through my door inviting me to spend ‘a relaxed evening’ with a timeshare company, then it’s hardly necessary to ask, ‘What’s the catch?’ Come for a lovely evening’s presentation and enjoy a drink with us! They rarely mention that they’re planning to lock you in a room for hours on end while they give you the hard sell. But the card is nicely presented by way of an invitation and you might be lulled into thinking that everything will be lovely and a good evening will be had by all. Beware!
I have had occasion in the past to be the person doing the inviting (though not to a timeshare sales pitch). I think the hardest time I had inviting people along to something was when I got married. I wanted to invite everybody I knew to the wedding but, as finances would have it, numbers were restricted. It was a nightmare working out who could and couldn’t be invited. So-and-so? Well, if she’s invited we’ll have to invite her partner. What about what’s-his-name? Well, if he’s invited then we should invite what’s-her-name as well! Nightmare! (Invitations and seating plans for weddings should be up there in the stress-ometer with moving house!) Some people can get offended if they’re not invited to weddings. Personally, having had to make the tough choices, I now don’t worry if I don’t make it on to the guest list – there are far greater hardships in life!
Talking of weddings, I was thinking that wedding proposals from husband to wife (or the other way round!) are a kind of invitation – an invitation to spend the rest of your life with someone. When I talk to people about the time I was proposed to, I set a very romantic scene. . . . We were on a quiet Spanish beach, the sun glowed orange as it rested on the horizon. We had just enjoyed a lovely meal and I was wearing a white dress. Lee was beautifully tanned and was wearing a pale blue shirt and light trousers. We were gazing at the sea, in each other’s arms, sitting on the stone wall bordering the soft sandy beach. Then, without warning, Lee produced a diamond ring and asked me to marry him! (Mills & Boon eat your heart out!) If, how-ever, you were to ask Lee how he asked me to marry him, you would probably get a response along the lines of: ‘We had just had our tea and were sitting on a wall, next to a plastic bin, on a beach in Spain and I asked Lydia to marry me.’ Men!
Often, invitations include these four letters at the bottom: RSVP – requesting confirmation by a certain date, as to whether or not you are able to come (perhaps not with a wedding proposal though). I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m a bit last-minute with my responses – and have even missed out on a couple of fun days out. Mental note to self: Must try to be more organised.
So, through life we get invitations here and there. Some we can take or leave, some we are obliged to accept, some are really important, and some not so important.
In my own life there has been one invitation that has been the most important to me, even above an invitation to marry. This invitation was given to me as soon as I was able to read and understand it. It was given to me in writing, but later in person when I got to know the person who had made the invitation. The invitation was:
‘Come to me, you who are burdened down, and I will give you rest.’ (Matt. 11:28.)
This invitation came to me from Jesus Christ, a man who spoke those words over two thousand years ago, and was recorded in the Bible so that anyone who reads it can have the same invitation. Jesus is speaking to every human being in every place in every age to go to him and find rest in him. He is inviting you and he is inviting me to come to him. He is promising to take the load from our shoulders, to give us rest from the worries of this world (and there are plenty), to give us peace when life is tough. All we need to do is accept the invitation. The good thing about this invitation is that it doesn’t have any hidden catch. It doesn’t have any RSVP date. It is an open invitation to everyone for all time that we can come to him and he will give us rest. You don’t have to live this life on your own, struggling from one day to the next. You don’t have to deal with life’s problems on your own. You can have peace in your heart and mind if you accept Jesus’ invitation. I accepted it years ago and have never looked back.
Most people like invitations! I know I do, because most invitations are good or fun invitations. For example (speaking as a woman), a close friend gets engaged and one of the first things to cross my mind is, ‘I wonder if I will be invited to the wedding,’ or a family member happens to win a holiday for five at a luxury resort (which sadly hasn’t happened to any of my family members!) and, again, the question is ‘I wonder if I will be invited’.
