Birthday Contemplation

"Happy Birthday, Daddy!" the kids told me this morning as if they didn't remember accusing, umm I mean wrongly concluding, that I turn 45 instead of 35 today. After all, what is one digit in the tens column? It is just a number, right? It is just being born in 1964 instead of 1974. It is just a decade. [On the subject of feeling 45 years old instead of the 35 years that I actually am, I will not comment here (smirk!)]

As is common, my birthday used to be the most important day of the year for me--or at least tied with Christmas, which was a "me" day all the same. Birthdays are not such a big deal anymore. By comparison, my anniversary is far more significant a milestone each year. For that matter, my wife's birthday is a far more brilliant day in the cosmic scene of things. And for that matter, my kids' birthdays are more highly decorated than my birthday as well. My birthday might rank somewhere near Groundhog Day (February 2) or Flag Day (June 14)!

"What do you want for your birthday?" went the conversation this birthday-eve. Sure, I want a pair of channel-lock pliers large enough to fix that PVC pipe fitting on the garden pond waterfall. Sure, I want a steak and potato on the grill. Sure, I want a camera that can actually do a decent job with depth-of-field aperture shots. But I would far rather save up any blessing that might come to me on "my" day and pass it along to my wife and kids. I can honestly say that I don't need anything more or want anything different for my brithday--I already have it in spades.

Anyway, such is my birthday contemplation. But, as it seems in my head as I write these sentiments, any contemplation about important days during my humble trips around the sun must esteem one day above the others; my death and re-birth day, when by faith I died with the Lord Jesus and in faith rose again in His resurrection ... the day God caused me to connect all these dots, confessing with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in my heart that God raised Him from the dead resulting in salvation (Romans 10:9-10) ... the first Sunday in January 1991.