Happy Birthday (07/08/2024)

Today is my baby sister’s birthday. Happy birthday, Deidre. This day I give thanks to the LORD for you and your life and the difference your life has made in the lives of so many because of your great ability to love well, love long, love deeply. I pray that this day is full of memorable moments marked by joy, laughter and the presence of those who love you.

Our birthdays are a great time for others to reach out, to say the things they have failed to say along the way. Birthdays are a great time for us to consider the importance of another along the way, the difference they have made in our journey, the gifts they have brought into our lives that made our lives richer and fuller. Birthdays should be joy days not just for those whose day it is but also for us who are different because of the one celebrating.

Birthdays are times, too, to look back at all that has been and to see the hand of God more clearly in our journey. We can’t always see that in the moment; at times, things are too chaotic to really take in the scenery or notice the players. And looking back helps us to see the whole better, realizing that the moments we thought were terrible at the time were doors to moments that led us to something amazing. Looking back in gratitude with faith is always a good idea.

Birthdays are also times to look forward to what can be, to dream, to make plans for ourselves and how we might best realize the hope the LORD had the day we were conceived. Within us and our lives is such great potential. What is still possible? What must I do, how must I change in order to realize that possibility?

And that brings me back to one of the most important parts of any birthday, thanksgiving to the LORD for this gift, this person. Birthdays are great days to realize deeply and wholly that it all begins with the LORD and that it is meant to play out in the LORD.

May we all celebrate our birthdays and the birthdays of our loved ones with love, with joy, with thanksgiving, with awe of the LORD who made it all possible. May we celebrate the lives of those whose love have changed us and our world. May we recognize in them the love of our LORD at work in our world.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.