Birthdays

We have a slough of family birthdays exactly one week apart for each of them in July...our youngest daughter Molly starts it off, then my son Tom follows, my husband, and lastly our daughter Jamie who "happened" to marry a man whose birthday fell on exactly the same day as hers. And each week we have a family gathering to celebrate...Last week Tom and his wife Rebecka even met us in Austin for his. And we were all there to welcome them. Birthdays to me are not only a time for celebrations but also a time for refection. A time to consider what past achievements and priorities have been, a time to reevlauate life as it is today and a time to reestablish a path to pursue going forward.

When we were in Austin last weekend, I brought a big box of loose pictures that I had gathered up from assorted drawers throughout the house...(I am not too organized) and at dinner's end as everyone was sitting around the table I quietly just set the box in the middle of the table and went about my chores of cleaning up...Sure enough one picked up one pile of pics, and the others followed and the conversations took off. It is fun to look back on memories and times shared. And it was even more fun to be standing in the background watching and listening as the kids laughed and talked and reminisced. It was a wonderful weekend.

I think sometimes we take birthdays for granted and forget to embrace them as milestones. They are you know! And each year there is something that has changed within us. It may be ever so slightly...but we do change in one way or another....and a birthday is a really good time to consider what changes may have occurred. And are the changes ones that have brought contentment and joy or have we let them ride through us leaving a us unfulfilled? Birthdays are a point in time that come every calendar year with consistency. It is a life marker...kind of like a bookmark...this is where we are today...and there is more to follow and we don't yet know how our story will roll out....but the author and creator of our story knows us from His beginning to our earthly end.

(The remaining part of this email is taken from a devotional that I wrote on this same topic in '09....but it fits right again into my thoughts of today.)

Birthdays are just that ....days of birth. The established and accounted for time that we first entered this new world. At that time...when a baby is born we celebrate the moment....we aren't thinking about where they will go to college, or who they will marry or what they will grow up to be or how God will use them on this earth. We merely are grateful for the moment. But all too quick, that moment is gone and the restlessness of what is to come seems to carry more weight than what is now...and we lose sight of that initial joy of the moment. I was at a funky fabric store downtown yesterday, High Fashion, and a sign greeted me at the door that read...Life is lived in the magic of moments. As I sit here writing , I have taken a minute to close my eyes and think of some of my life lived moments... with family, with friends, through adventures, and risk, and jobs, and raising a family, and lessons learned, and paths crossed, and failures overcome....and victories celebrated.

And seldom did I give God credit for all that he was doing in my life....up until now. I just lived it without contemplating that all the while there was an eternal purpose for every path that I had crossed. Looking back...I do see God's footprints....he went before me on every turn. He knew who my parents would be, who my siblings would be, who I would marry, the genders of children, the friends that I would meet and the places that I would go....God knew the lessons he would teach me and the ones that I would carry forever close to my heart as I continued to grow up....I have come along way...and so have you ....but God isn't finished with any of yet...and and he will continue to use us even when we are gone from this earth and have traveled on to his heavenly home.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
That is the deal....God continues life ...he transfers it from one generation to another. The older I get, I think the wiser I get and I realize that the tests that I endure in this earthly life are the foundation that God uses to make us and mold us into being who he has envisioned us to be.....fro Hos eternal life. The tests are important because they too are sort of a guideline as to how much we have learned....and how much we need his daily tutoring to help us "get" how to live life the way that he has proposed. We start out on our "birth"days unable to do anything for ourselves and we are dependent in every way on someone else to care for our needs. Then we grow up a little and we become more confident....and stronger in our ways...and our abilities and talents and gifts become more obvious...we start taking control of our lives...and even feel pretty strong about trying to control other peoples lives...again forgetting that God is the initiator of our lives....not us.

We are here on this earth but for a moment....may that moment be filled with a joy that overcomes suffering...and a peace that overrides heartbreak....and a love that endures all things...through the grace of God.

Birthdays are to me a reminder that we are to come full circle with dependency. We start out with it...not knowing...and we are to end up with it ...knowing...that God is the only one who has the key to life. He is the only one who has control and authority to do whatever is in his will. We have to eventually come to grips with the fact that we have to drop our insignificant wand of trying to create magic...and appreciate God's wand of grace and mercy. For the magic of life is in God's moments....this very day...he has generated an array of beauty and blessings right before our eyes....we just have to slow down and watch for it...and be grateful for our birth on this earth and our rebirth in our knowing who our true lifeline is and connecting with the power, the strength, the courage, the wisdom, the confidence, the trust and the love that comes only from and through God himself.

Happy Birthday to all my precious July birthdays.... and Happy Birthday to each of you on your day ....When it is your turn to celebrate....remember to thank God for HIS moments....For he has gone before each of us....and has paved a way to his righteousness. Take a moment today and consider how God has changed you in a years time...is it gradual or has there been some revelation that has caused you to just look at life completely differently and maybe look at others differently...it is a good thing to allow God the freedom to adjust our thinking...for his adjustments are little gifts that he leaves us along our way.

Dear Lord, Oh how we take for granted life itself...make us mindful of your blessed moments and help us to cherish our times with friends and family and celebrate lives around us as well as our own. Let us praise you for making us as you have and forming us to be active servants in your kingdom. Please stay close always and make your very presence known to us as we travel down life's road. Amen

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!
website:
www.cathyjodeit.com
email address: cjodeit@gmail.com
The blog link below has all devotionals from the beginning of the year:

http://simplygod-cathy.blogspot.com/