Pack Your Tambourines

I regularly lead music with my preschool class on Sunday mornings, and more often than not you’ll find us shaking tambourines. There’s something about these little instruments that gathers us, that draws us into worship. Together, the preschoolers and I celebrate the goodness of God.

As we celebrate 10 years of the Awesome KidMin Conference, I’m drawn to Miriam. She is the girl who places Moses in the water and watches as Pharaoh’s daughter pulls him out. She witnesses God’s power through the plagues of Egypt. When she walks through the Red Sea on dry ground, she doesn’t hesitate. She reaches for her tambourine.

When God delivers them from slavery to the Egyptians, Scripture tells us: 

“Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing. Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.’”
(Exodus 15:20–21)

God’s goodness deserves to be celebrated. Miriam doesn’t simply join Moses’s song, she leads the women into a party. There is singing. There is dancing. And right there in the desert, they celebrate.

That leads me to a question I’m asking myself. I invite you to sit with it too: How am I celebrating God’s goodness in my life? And who am I leading to celebrate with me?

I’m especially struck by the fact that Miriam and the women packed their tambourines for the desert. It means that even in slavery, they had tambourines—and when they left Egypt, they chose to bring them along. They were prepared to celebrate. Miriam had seen God move in the past and trusted that He would be faithful again. When the moment came, she was ready.

Maybe you don’t feel much like celebrating today. Miriam probably didn’t feel like it while she waited for deliverance. But pack your tambourines anyway. Watch for His faithfulness. And when you see it…celebrate.

Maybe you’ll even dance.