The Parade of Lights

Yesterday was the wrap-up of the Spirit of the Sea Festival (nothing happens on BC Day, I guess). Some friends from church who live by the beach invited us down (so we could park at their place). We went down at 5pm--they invited several people from church, at least a dozen of us where there. We went down to the beach and had fish and chips (yes, even I ate them). Anders explored the beach a little, looking for little crabs and other things. Then we watched a short air show. Then we moved our chairs down the street and set up camp (we had a couple hours until the Parade of Lights, which was the main attraction). Anders and I went to the park and then found a bouncy castle that was still set up. He spent a bit of time just playing with a couple of the grandkids of couples from church. Finally at about 9:45 the front of the parade finally made it to us (we were toward the end).

Here's some of our group. Glow sticks of all shapes and sizes were popular at the parade.

Here's a couple of the parade entries. There were a few bands (including a good bagpiper group) and several cars with various fair dignitaries from both near and far. And there were plenty of floats. Most of them were just cars with Christmas lights attached (like in the first picture above), promoting various businesses or political candidates. There were a handful of really good floats--the second picture was one of our favorites. It featured Ogopogo, the Loch Ness Monster of Okanagan Lake in eastern BC. About 11pm, the parade was over. It was good--the group we were with made it a lot of fun. Though at times, we did miss being at the Pomeroy-Palmer Homecoming parade (there was definitely more candy there).

The funny thing was that for some of the people around us, the car getting towed before the parade started was the highlight of the evening. Hoards of kids gathered around yelling, "Tow it. Tow it."

Sometimes it's easy to forget what we're waiting for--we get distracted by seemingly more exciting things while we're waiting. It is difficult to stay focused when you're waiting for a while. Jesus said He'd return soon. That was almost 2000 years ago. It's been a long wait. The church has often gotten ourselves distracted in the wait. There's a lot of things that come up that are way more exciting than just waiting. Waiting is hard. But it's worth it. We can get focused on the distractions and totally miss out on it when the big event comes. So be prepared for the parade to come. Don't get distracted by other things that happen along the way. The Parade of Lights is coming.