Our Birthday

Philippians 1:3 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”

Today is my birthday.  It’s my late father-in-law’s birthday, too.  I’m forty-two; he would have been sixty-three.  There was a sort of unspoken contest between us:  who would be the first to wish the other “Happy Birthday?”  I guess I’d have to say in the nineteen years he was part of my life, we probably broke even.  December 19, 2008...I turned thirty-eight.  He died four months earlier and while I had thought about all the other things we’d have to do without him, I hadn’t given much thought to our birthday.  I kept looking at the phone, willing it to ring; wishing to hear his voice on the other end...full of vim and vigor.  Wrapping my head around the truth that there wouldn’t be any more birthday conversations wasn’t anywhere near pleasant.  I spent the day trying to figure out how to cancel any future acknowledgements of December 19^th.

The phone finally rang and it was my mother-in-law.  What she said to me was the best birthday present I’ve ever been given.  To have loved so greatly and be greatly loved in return is huge.  Some people live an entire lifetime never knowing the kind of love that inundated my life for nineteen years.  The ache of missing him was evidence of that love and while the grief was sometimes breathtaking, to have never known that love was an unbearable thought. 

Having my perspective so lovingly adjusted, plans to cancel any future celebrations of December 19 were dismissed.  He gets to spend the rest of his birthdays with Jesus and one sweet, glorious, amazing day, I’ll join him.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be first to wish him “Happy Birthday!”

Happy Birthday, Dad!  Love, Punkin!