Special
My birthday was two days ago. I am not one to tell people it’s my birthday or try to subtly hint to them that it is. I even feel sort of embarrassed when Heather throws a surprise group of people together to celebrate (that happened a couple years ago.) I remember last year on my birthday, I had some friends pop into our apartment. They were at a friends’ place who lived in an apartment upstairs from us. They said, “when you get a minute, come upstairs because we have a surprise for you.” I was certain it was a surprise party for my birthday. My reaction was not excitement and expectation but sort of dread and anxiety. For some reason I do not like surprise parties so much. When we got upstairs, it wasn’t a surprise party. They had no idea it was my birthday. A wave of relief settled over me. Instead they had caught some huge salmon and wanted to show us their catch.
Two days ago, however, on my birthday I was reminded of how great it feels when people treat you extra special on your birthday. I woke up in the morning to get ready to go out to the school. Heather sprung out of bed and began making me brekfast. I discovered that she had decorated the table the night before for my birthday. She had little balloons and fall decorations on it and a cake that she made for me. I kissed her goodbye and headed out to school to discover she had done a little decorating in my car as well. Some balloons and a note. When I got out to school, I didn’t tell anyone it was my birthday, and I didn’t expect anyone to know. But when I got into the lunch room with the interns they broke into a chorus of “happy birthday”…there was a cake and little card sitting on the table. Our school’s secretary, Karen, keeps track of everybody’s birthday. And she made the cake for me the night before and brought it to school along with a card she had all the staff and interns sign. Karen really is like a mother around here. She does a great job of bringing love, warmth and caring to this place. The cake was delicious, and the maintenance interns and myself took care of it in a matter of a few minutes. Later, as I was driving home after an afternoon in the maintenance shop, I checked the messages on my phone to find happy birthday messages from a lot of my family. Heather and I got all dowelled up to go out to dinner. She took me out to a nice restaraunt that we had talked about going to for a long time. During the drive there and during the dinner I received a steady stream of phone calls from other loved ones. I called back those that left me messages too. Including Kelly, my wonderful twin sis, who I’ve shared a birthday with all of my life. As Heather and I sat and chatted, we received one more phone call, the last of the night, from Heather’s step mom Jean. She called to say happy birthday too. As I talked with her I had a wave of emotion come over me when I realized how many family members had called to wish me a special day. I just felt so special. That is the best way I can describe it. I felt tears begin to well up. And my birthday could not have gone better. No gift or event that Heather took me to or anything could have taken the place of those phone calls. And of the little thoughtful things that Heather did for me. It was a wonderful feeling. I felt tears begin to well up for a moment. And that is a big thing for me because I rarely ever cry. There is something so great about people letting you know you are special to them. I know this is a wonderful feeling and I remember having similar feelings on my birthday in years past. And I kind of tend to quickly forget these feelings until my next birthday. It seems like each year I am astounded by how good it feels, and then resolve to do a better job of remembering other people’s birthdays and then I quickly loose that resolve. Anyways my birthday got me thinking about how wonderful it is to be special to somebody, to be loved like that. I am really aware of it on my birthday. I am so glad now that God uses that kind of language to describe how he loves me. That he calls me one of his family. John 1:12 says “..to those who receive Him (Jesus), to those who believe in His name, he gave the right to become children of God.” God tells me that I am loved, considered precious and dear. I have been adopted into his family. When Jesus was spending his last night with his disciples, having his last supper with them before he was going to go and be crucified, he told them “In my Father’s house there are many rooms…..I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me where I am going.” (John 14:2-3) Ephesians 2:13 says “But now, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:19 says “Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” “You have received the Spirit of sonship, and by him we cry “abba, father” (Romans 8:15) Abba is a term of endearment that literally means something like “daddy, daddy.” I don’t think I can really scratch the surface of all the places in the Bible that God describes how special his relationship is with his people and how dear we are to Him. I read the other day how he will sing and rejoice over us. All I know is I am very glad for this and I was reminded of its importance in my life on my birthday. I want to finish this post with this passage, Ephesians 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
