cel·e·brate
verb
1. acknowledge (a significant or happy day or event) with a social gathering or enjoyable activity.
This week I’m celebrating my 38th birthday… and yes, I had to double check the math before typing that. After 30, I think I kind of lost count. I suppose mine will be just one of many birthdays spent in quarantine this month.
I’m not a big party person, at least parties for myself, so I’m okay with it.
When I was a kid I lamented over never feeling “special” on my birthday. My birthday was 4 days apart from my dad’s and Easter was always on or close to our birthdays. Every year, we had Easter dinner with my Grandparents and my dad’s Aunt. For dessert, my mom would make my dad’s favorite, a cherry chip cake with pink cherry frosting. On top of the cake was a plastic Easter bunny with Easter eggs. Over the years, the colors became so faded that the bunny was looking pretty rough, but she kept using it anyway.
I was pretty jaded that for MY birthday party, all my siblings got Easter baskets full of candy and gifts, we had Easter ham for dinner and someone else’s favorite dessert.
Looking back, I hadn’t known that money in my house was tight, and that throwing a second big get together a week after this special family dinner might have been financially tight. I hadn’t known that my dad’s own childhood was rough and my mom had probably spent many years trying to make HIS day special. It was the only day each year I remember having that kind of cake, after all.
My dad passed away in 2016 and it has been bittersweet to celebrate without him standing next to me to blow out candles. I'd happily enjoy HIS favorite dessert with him, of course.
I’m honestly not disappointed in the slightest at the idea of a quiet celebration with a curbside pick up dinner and my kids making me a jell-o poke cake for dessert. I’m quite content.
My birthday reminds me now that this IS a celebration of life and we can’t just live for THIS one. This life is temporary, it doesn’t last. But we are promised so much more if we are part of the body of Christ.
I love this passage from 1 John 2:24-25.
1 John 2:24 "So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.
And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us."
Our life here is filled with ups and downs, failures and victories, joy and sadness.
I’m so thankful for my husband and children, a safe place to call home, food on our table and so much more. Others might not have much to celebrate at all. But if we are in Christ, we can all look forward to the day when Jesus will wipe away every tear and we can celebrate and thank Him for the greatest gift available – merciful redemption and our names written in the book of life, an eternity with Jesus.
