Saturday June 4 2016  THE BIRTHDAY MONTH

Today is my friend’s birthday as well as it is one of my sisters’.  Monday is another friend’s birthday.   Friday is my daughter’s birthday, and the day after that another very close friend’s birthday.  The next day is Dave’s sister’s birthday and then his birthday comes that same week.  The 30^th of June would have been Dave’s father’s 123rd birthday had he lived long enough.  He did live to see his 101^st birthday however.  Now he is celebrating with his Lord. 

The milestones of life, one of which is the day we celebrate our birth.  When I was a child birthdays were never an important event in our family.  My mom did try to see that we each had a birthday cake but the thought of a party was never even in the equation of life.  We were too poor, had too many kids, and mama was just too overworked keeping life and limb together during the years we lived in the projects.

However, I do remember one birthday party I had.  It was my eighth year.  I guess I probably just wore mama down.  She allowed me to make invitations and give them to some of my classmates.  Now there were two distinct classes of school kids, those who lived in the projects, and those who didn’t.  Because I chose to walk a very long circuitous route to school I could enter the school premises from the neighborhood of houses (which I thought was where the rich people lived), and not be distinguished as a “project kid”.  So that is what I did.  I just never mentioned where I lived.  My close friends knew I lived in the projects.  Most of my friends lived in the beautiful houses and were not allowed by their parents to venture into my home territory.  However, as I look back now I realize how kind they were to include me in their children’s birthday parties.  It seemed like all my friend’s parents liked me (or at least that was what I thought) and I was often asked to come over and play after school.  I found out quite quickly that my friends’ parents had some strict standards to abide by so for me, it was a positive learning tool.  One rule was that their children were not allowed to enter the projects, which was probably a very wise decision.

Back to my party.  I am still amazed when I look back and realize that the parents didn’t just send their kids over on foot (it was quite a maze to find the right apartment), but drove them over in a car.  Not only did they drive them, but a couple of them didn’t even leave the parking lot, which I could see from our small window on the second level of the building.  Knowing what I know now I would have probably carried out the same vigil.  But oh, was my party ever amazing!  There were probably six or eight other children present and I thought I was a princess.  It was the first time that I was the birthday girl.  It wasn’t fancy and we had no favors to pass out, but I do remember we played spin the tail on the donkey, with a real picture of a donkey!  And the one gift I remember receiving at my one and only birthday party was from Noreen Lakeman, the prettiest girl in the second grade class.  Her gift to me was a STORE BOUGHT SLIP!  It was silky, had little thin straps that could be adjusted and I thought I was in hog heaven.  I will never forget how it felt on my skin.  When I wore it (everyday) I just knew I was extra special and that everyone probably knew that I had on that beautiful slip.  I always wished the slip would show beneath my hem but by dresses were never short enough.  Dresses that others little girls wore were above their knees, mine would be mid-calf or longer and all home made.  Up until that 8th birthday my slips were all home sewn as well.  It was a wonderful birthday!  I made that slip last about two years.

And so, along the way birthdays became just another day with perhaps a remembrance of a cake and maybe a little gift of some sort, or not.  I made certain our children had small, age appropriate parties.  Few guests when they were younger, and more guest as they grew older.  We never really did much for Dave and me.  I did throw a huge surprise birthday party for Dave’s 40^th birthday, however I purposely gave it to him on his 39^th birthday to catch him off guard.  And, he was totally caught off guard because it was so out of the ordinary.  Our tried and true friends were all present, some from miles and miles away.  They simply stayed over night with us.  It was a big deal!  And it was fun.

Fast forward another 20 years or so and by that time I had almost totally forgotten to celebrate birthdays.  I never understood the celebration of life that a party commemorates.  When I was 8 years old it was all about the gifts.  And then I met a new friend.  We weren’t really very close at that time.  She is also a neighbor who lives through the woods.  Every birthday for several years I would a find a birthday gift magically appear on my door knob.  After we because closer I asked her why she remembered my birthday.  She told me something which was profound to me.  She said, “All of your birthdays should be celebrated to commemorate the fact that you were born.”  That was a startling discovery for me.  About that same time another very dear friend sent me a card that took my breath away.  I still have it but cannot remember verbatim the words on the card, but it went something like this on the front:  “Today celebrates an important event…” and when the card was opened it continued, “Because it was the day you were born and the world is a better place because of your birth”. 

That card, plus what my other friend told me, gave me a new way of looking at myself in relationship to my birthdays.  I realized I was of value because it was God who created me.  And he created me uniquely and with a purpose.  I now think of a person’s birth date as something very significant.  And actually it is.  Our days are numbered, and we do have a purpose.  I have learned to celebrate life every day, not just on my birthday.  And I want others to know that I honor the commemoration of their birth.

So enough about the birthday month.  (Except for the rest of the blog.)

YOUR BIRTH IS A GIFT OF LOVE

By Kathleen Martens

June 4, 2016

To give birth is quite a task,

If it is the mom you ask.

And so special to recall the joy

Regardless whether girl or boy.

Each child created uniquely by God,

With days numbered upon this sod.

From dust we were created.

And back to dust we are fated.

But in between God has a plan

For each child, each woman, each man.

God has a calling upon each soul

That should be our life long goal.

And because of that I do believe

Our special day should make one sing.

Our birthday comes but once a year

So mark the calendar as it nears.

And thank God daily, that in you He breathed

And planned a way you’d be ever free.

Realize your birth is a gift of love

From our precious Father up above.

Thank You God that You gave me the opportunity to be born that I might know You.

Thank You God for being such an awesome Creator.

Thank You Lord for the two precious lives you entrusted to Dave and me.

Thank You also for the birth of our two wonderful grandsons.

What an amazing Father You are.

Thank You God that I am in the palm of Your hand as I travel from dust to dust.

Thank You God for friends that changed my life by the beautiful words they said to me.

Thank You that I now know how to celebrate the beautiful gift of life You gave to me.

“Psalm 139:13-18

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.”

GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS YOU ON THIS WONDERFUL DAY!

P.S.  And now every year I throw myself a birthday party and celebrate with God and my family!  Now it is about the gracious gift of life that God has given me.