Times of Refreshing: Rosanna of the Desert

And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.

As outlined in the 3Rs description of the varied ways Christians observe the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, some groups have a memorial of the Last Supper on the night before the night of the typical Jewish Passover seder. It is a simple ceremonial activity in which participants read through the account of the Last Supper, each person takes a small piece of unleavened bread and a small glass of wine, and perhaps all take part in a foot-washing ceremony. It is typical for such groups to then have a festive gathering on the next night, in commemoration of the ancient Exodus Passover. Because of the passage above, this night is often referred to among such groups as the "Night to Be Much Observed" (NTBMO) or the "Night To Be Much Remembered" (NTBMR). Although it is common for this to just be celebrated in individual homes with a nice family meal, some groups go all out to make it a festive, communal occasion. Below are excerpts from a description, emailed to friends by one member of such a group in Alabama, of their joyous NTBMR celebration. It is included on this Times of Refreshing website as a sample of how readers might improvise such an activity for themselves.

NTMBR was a twenty on a scale of one to ten. We had 55 present at a banquet of beautifully decorated tables (Charlotte and her mom did a center piece on each table using lit candles, fresh flowers and her big colorful tea cup collection and every other beautiful container she could find), the best food I've eaten in a long, long time, and a wildly hysterical play called "Roseanna of the Wilderness" performed bravely WITHOUT rehearsal by many people in the congregation and a few visitors (picture age 90, Farmer, and Verlie, his 86 year old wife wearing bathrobes and hollering together "WHAT IS IT??" whenever Garry stuck a microphone in their faces while narrating about the daily manna. They were like the "Where's The Beef " old ladies. It was a hoot. We aged Roseanna from a young girl to age 40+ in about 6-7 minutes. She wore the same bathrobe for all those years.

Then there was Gary and male friends, complete with his manna basket dancing around and picking up manna off the floor while Beth sang a rewritten version of Day-O. "Daylight comes and me wanna go home. Come Mr. Gary man, pick me up some manna, Daylight comes and me wanna go home. Come Mr. Larry man, pick me up some manna, etc." They loved it!

Juanita, who will do most anything Garry suggests to her (they still have the annual go cart race at the Feast of Tabernacles each year and she's in her 70's now ...) starred as Roseanna Roseanna Manna who opened the Shofar Cabana in the Wilderness. Barry Manilow's words were easily rewritten by Beth and me... "Her name's Roseanna, she is a Hebrew, with yellow color in her hair and a robe that never wears" ...etc. Beth downloaded the music from the internet and then recorded her voice over the real words before we got there. We worked words in like "the best thing on the menu is the manna!" and spoke of her being a virtuous woman.

The play ended when the young Joshua arrived with a backload of grapes (a huge bunch of small purple balloons tied together) and a jug of milk and one of honey. Oh, yeah, Lynard Skynard helped by singing Sweet Home Alabama in the background. So corny, but amazingly funny... people were cheering and laughing so loudly! Maybe the dinner wine helped make it funny?

What a night! I had to drive the old folks back to our house to go to bed, but some stayed until 11:00 PM. Then Beth, Garry, and I sat up until midnight reliving the evening. It was the best NTBMR we'd ever experienced and we've had some mighty good ones before! I have no idea how we'll ever top it next year.

Use the links below to explore ways to make the other "appointments of God" truly Times of Refreshing.

See A Mini-Pedia of Celebration for an overview of the Hebrew and Greek words used in the Bible to describe how the Feasts and Holy Days are to be kept.

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