Birthdays

Since today is my birthday, I thought I would share a birthday blog I wrote for the Bethel Lutheran Church Beacon. 

There is some special event that each month reminds us of.  For me, July is birthday month, not because we all have birthdays in July, but because I do. Whose is the first birthday that we learn? That’s right, ours. With our children and grandchildren, we cover all twelve months of the year, but I still think of July as birthday month.

As a child, it was exciting to have one and it took forever to get to the next one. Now they are less exciting and they seemingly come more quickly. As a child, they made us feel like we were really growing up. Now they remind us that we are getting really old, at least that’s the way my grandkids see me.

But there is also something more sobering that birthdays remind us of. There will be a limited number of them. The psalmist says that we get three score and ten of them (70) and if by virtue of strength, four score (80). By the psalmist’s figuring, I am down to four more. That poses two questions.

The first is, what am I going to do with that limited time? My grandmother had a plaque on her wall that said, “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” Do my days, months, and years amount to what Christ wants them to accomplish for Him? Since He set the bounds of my life, and He has also set the expectations for the time given. Birthdays can help us evaluate whether we have used the past year for Him and how we might lay our plans for service to Him in the year ahead.

The second question is, am I ready for my final birthday? After this life there is another one, and that one is eternal. Have we prepared for it? Have we trusted Christ as Savior, put our faith in Him? No matter what birthday count we have reached, that is the single most important question for every person, the question for which we need the right answer.