A BIRTHDAY REFLECTION I have shared a birthday with someone all my life! My brother, Jim was also born on December 20, but two years ahead of me. On Saturday, I shared the celebration with my grandson, Cooper who is three years old on December 28. There is a big difference between a three-year-old birthday party and a 51-year-old birthday party! Cooper had his big celebration at Gatti-Land Pizza, replete with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle color themes and décor, plenty of pizza. Mine was a bit more subdued with two candles (a five and a one) since no one wanted to set off the smoke alarms and they probably figured that’s all I could manage to blow out at my advanced age! For a three-year old, we celebrate important landmarks in physical, mental and emotional development and try to make the birthday kid feel special. Some people dread birthdays in their later years, perhaps because it is a reminder of our mortality and the unrelenting passage of time. I choose to be reflective, and deeply grateful. In 1963, doctors predicted that I would be born prematurely and never survive. By the time I was born, my father was gone. My mother tried, but was ill-equipped to raise two boys on her own. I suspect that the discussion about me in the teachers’ lounge wasn’t glowing! My mother courageously sent us to live at Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch, and while I probably didn’t have the best odds of finishing college, God instilled in me the tenacity to persevere. I have been blessed with a beautiful family and meaningful work. David writes in Psalm 139 : “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mothers womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” As the one who was not predicted to survive much past a premature birth, I can say that life is great and I am profoundly blessed. Each of us were created with a purpose. Use each day to fulfill that divine destiny!
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 20:33:59 +0000