Happy Birthday

 "For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you." Psalm 71: 5-6

    Today is my friend's birthday. We have been friends for about sixty years so I love celebrating her today. She has been such a blessing to many.

    Right after I texted a happy birthday greeting to her, I smiled as I read the above verse. Imagine God in scrubs, reassuring the laboring mother as her child is delivered into His strong and capable hands. In great joy, the Lord cleanses the wee one of blood and water before He gently hands the babe over to Mom with a broad smile. It truly is a happy birthday.

    Going through life holding the hand of the Lord is a storied and beautiful journey. Blessed is the person whose "time is in Your hands" (Psalm 31:15). Like a little child He leads us, even through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4), driving away our fears. He defends the weak and the fatherless, upholding the cause of the poor and oppressed (Psalm 82:3), silencing our foes and bullies. 

    "No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand." That is a promise from Jesus. (John 10:29)  In fact, nothing, "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8: 38-39) I would never want to live outside of His Presence.

    Go back to that scene in the delivery room: He, who knit me together in my mother's womb (Psalm 139:13), will be there to escort me home when my eyes shall close in death, "from life's first cry to final breath."  He will be there when the sheet is pulled over my face, preparing my body for its temporary rest. And the Holy Spirit, who used that body for His temple, will take me home to be with Him forever, to a mansion on the hilltop, in that bright land where we'll never grow old. (John 14:3)

    To get there, we need to be born again. I heard it said, "Born once, die twice; Born twice, die once." In other words, our soul needs to be reborn spiritually because we were born into sin. As Jesus told Nicodemus, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." (John 3:3) We must be children born of God. 

    That's why Jesus came to die and rise again so we may have life in His Name. It's a transfer of trust from ourselves to the One who made us, believing in Christ. "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God...for everyone born of God overcomes the world." (1 John 5: 1-4)

    Now that's a happy birthday!

"Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come." Psalm 71: 17-18