HERE I COME !

Today is my birthday ... my birth day.

Every year, when this day comes around, I think of my mother.  I wonder about the joy she had at my arrival, her first child.  But birthing is only part of the story: mothering is so much more and my mother was a wonderful mother.  So much of who I am, I learned from my mother.  I hope she would be proud of me today as she would watch me live.

And I think of my Dad.  Today I am 70, a long way from my birth day!  Unconsciously, I think, Dad has been my model of what Christian service is like as one ages.  Yes, I am like my mother but I have been discovering that my "heart responses", my devotion to God, resembles my father's.  I hope he would be proud of me today as he would watch me live out my faith in God.

And I think of me. Twenty years ago, I would not have imagined that my life at 70 would look like this.  Davd and I had plans, great plans for what our old age would look like.  But God had other plans for me, plans I wouldn't have chosen for myself, some that I would never have thought I could bear.  I have been through some dark valleys, I have leaned so heavily on my Abba that anyone else than He would have fallen over.  But through it all, I have learned who He is and who I am as "me".  I have learned a lot about grace and compassion.  I have learned a lot about true friendship.  I have been surrounded by loving, caring, upholding family and friends.

And I've had the fun of exploring my crazy, adventurous, spontaneous side ... and I like it!

So, today, Happy Birthday to me!  I like who I am at 70 :).  I humbly kneel before my God, my Abba, and thank Him for making me, for His faithful care, patience, strength and guidance during my whole life, and particularly these last 11 years.  Then, drawing on that strength, I stand up and say "Here I come, world!"

"Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvellous deeds.  Even when I am old and grey, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation."  .. and I'm having fun doing it!
Psalm 71:17-18