I love birthdays!. Of course I love my own birthday but every birthday is special. It is the day you were born. The day when our Creator God planned for you to enter the world. Your day when your small infant body breathed its first breath of air and obediently uttered a gleeful cry. It's the moment your tiny body discovered that nine months in the womb gave you love and comfort but now it was time to begin living decades of life in our physical world. And your newborn squeals announced to Mommy and Daddy that you were alive and well. Everyone celebrated because you, the baby, was born!
As a nurse I have witnessed the birth of many babies and I'm always amazed at birth. The fact that a tiny sperm and a tiny egg celebrate marital love by meeting in a female body and joining together in a moment of conception is miraculous. And nine months later a tiny baby pushes and glides into open air and screams, "Hi everyone! I'm here!" It is a miracle! A God ordained miracle that no man or woman on this earth could duplicate. We are all participants of that miracle. As we continue to grow and mature I trust we all remember how we got here.
As we celebrate each yearly birthday we experience the wonderful challenges of aging. Remember when we were youngsters, six years old, and when asked "How old are you?", we would respond by announcing proudly "Almost seven". And now in our eighties we reply "58!", instead of "85!" We are proud of our lives and continually aim to make the most of all our endeavors. But as we grow into the senior years of our lives we begin to take a hard look. Was I selfish? Did I put work in front of 'family', so they had more money to play with? Was I honest or did I take advantage of people? Or was I generous, always tithing my money to help others? Did I truly love my children, listen to them, encourage them, praise them and also discipline them carefully or was I always on my phone? Honest assessments, but we in our eighties still have time and opportunity to straighten our lives.
It is joyful fun to celebrate a birthday. Dick's birthday was December 23, two day before Christmas. He grew up remembering lots of Birthday/Christmas celebrations so when we married I was determined to make his Birthday special in addition to Christmas. For years his favorite cake was 'Pineapple Upside Down' cake and even though that was odd, that was how we celebrated. As our family grew, the 'family' Birthday cake became 'Mrs. Caffery's Chocolate Cake' from a friend, delicious cake made with one cup of cold coffee and one cup of cocoa. "Hmm, good." Family traditions are so important when it comes to birthdays. We remember birthdays as a child and yearn to continue that tradition.
Well, I just celebrated a birthday milestone. On April 6, I turned 85 years. As the number of years hit me, I realized, looking back, I never dreamt I would live this long. I remember thinking '85' was 'OLD'. I remember wondering, would I live that long? Then I also started re-living and remembering 85 years. I remember being a flower girl in Aunt Muriel's wedding, when I was five, walking down the church aisle, tossing little flowers out of my basket (which I still have) and gazing up at all the people smiling at me. I remember handing out Hershey's chocolate 'kisses' in 8th grade when I ran for president of my homeroom. By the way, I won! I remember Mommy hanging out clothes on the clothesline that ran from our outside deck to the garage. No driers back in those days and oh, the sheets always smelled so fresh. I remember WW II with air raid drills and walking silently down the school steps to the basement where we knelt and covered our heads with our arms to protect us if bombs fell. I remember Daddy as a Volunteer fireman, piling his fireman clothes in the bathroom at night in case he got a call to fight a fire. Memories go on and on.
Birthdays are special and may you celebrate many wonderful 'HAPPY BIRTHDAYS' as you thank the Lord for the miracle of your birth.
