Year after year we look forward to the Feast of Tabernacles. And if we are really growing in godly character and being converted by God’s Spirit, we have more anticipation for the Feast than before. We realize that we are a year closer to its ultimate fulfillment and we desire God’s way more than ever before as we see all the prophesied events coming to pass in this deceived society.

This year’s Feast in Baguio City was a little different than usual. In fact, for Nancy Binos and myself, it was a once-in-lifetime experience. We were married during the Feast!

After a year of planning and preparation, all the work, effort, and expense was brought to fruition in just a half-hour ceremony. It reminded us on numerous occasions of Olympic athletes who train and prepare for years and often their opportunity for a medal comes down to a few minutes of execution. Well, Nancy and I were fortunate that we had help for which we cannot adequately or fully acknowledge.

One of the key lessons we learned during the planning for the wedding is that some people who we thought we could rely on were unable to follow through with their commitments. This matter as well as the seeming endless preparations got me to thinking—What parallels are there in planning for a wedding and planning for the Feast? Well, as it turned out, Nancy and I did both simultaneously and there were a number of similarities.

The Feast of Tabernacles requires short, medium, and long-term planning. So does a wedding. There were issues we addressed more than a year before the wedding. Our long-range planning for the festivals involves physical preparations as well as spiritual.

Likewise, the medium and short-term plans are important. For example, there are some things that cannot be planned a long time ahead (such as how the weather will be). In our case, we had to plan for that the very day of the wedding (although we made advance arrangements). Last minute plans for the Feast generally tend to be alterations of earlier plans.

When we walked up that aisle to the altar to be married, it seemed like it was a dream. It was VERY real and yet it had the feeling of being ‘beyond real.’ This is not a simple thing to describe but you may have felt the same thing on your wedding day. The ceremony was not how I imagined it would be. Obviously, I had thought about what it would be like to walk up to the altar single and walk away a married individual. But the way that the ceremony progressed, how everything was arranged, the pretty dresses, etc.—all was beyond my imagination. Somehow I think that was how it is supposed to be.

And the Kingdom of God (portrayed by the Feast of Tabernacles) will be the same way. The difficult thing we may encounter now is that we have setbacks and disappointments every year when we keep the Feast. But when we are actually there being given our assignments (for the millennium) in the Kingdom, it will be something like what I have been describing. The Feast should exceed our expectations. In its fulfillment, it will be unlike anything we could possibly imagine.

I am quite confident that we will be much busier in the Kingdom than we have ever been in our physical lives. That was another aspect to the Feast this year that made it much different than any Feast I have experienced before. I was busier more than ever before. The best Feast experiences have always been those that I had the opportunity to work with fellow brethren (no matter how “imperfect” they seemed). As I mentioned earlier, sometimes brethren let us down. For example, they say they will do certain things and then they fail to do them. But we all have things to improve on. What I have found, and this year’s Feast was no exception, is that when we can work together in a way that pleases God, He accomplishes so much in us. After all, isn’t that what the government of God is all about?

Permit me to tell something on myself. I have often had the thought that “I have to do the work myself because others cannot be relied upon to do it the way I want.” What a selfish thought, huh? Does that sound familiar? Well, this year helped me to further realize that such thinking is foolish and is just simply wrong. There was simply way too much work for Nancy and I to do by ourselves. We had to ask for help and thankfully we had a lot of terrific assistance with every aspect of the wedding. That made for a better wedding, even if our helpers decided to do certain things differently than we were originally considering or planning. In the end, their contributions made the wedding more enjoyable for everyone.

With regards to the Feast of Tabernacles, it is a cooperative effort. No one or two people can do everything. Each person serves in a capacity that may not seem like much to some but every contribution is important. As we grow in unity, we learn that “doing it my way” will NEVER give us satisfaction. As the wedding demonstrated to us, we can work together for a common objective and in the end, it is a rewarding experience. When we fully learn that lesson, then we are really close to the Kingdom.