It was a typical Saturday, with one exception. It was my birthday.
This was to be a quiet natal celebration, by choice. Post Christmas birthdays often find one a bit wasted, overindulged and frankly, spent by non-stop holiday celebrations. Don’t get me wrong. I am a Christmas fanatic! From Halloween through New Years, I am fully engaged in all that speaks of Christmas: planning, creating, gift-giving, decorating. Still, as the turkey carcass simmers and the last of the wrapping paper is tossed, it hits — that post-Christmas downer when the adrenalin slows and the body crashes. Even a birthday seems ‘less than exciting’.
Longing for quiet, low carb nourishment and the rejuvenation of time just to think and feel, John and I encouraged the family to delay birthday celebrations, his birthday falling just four days before mine. We both wanted time to simply breath. I. WAS. SPENT.
Then it arrived: a simple card delivered by the US Postal services. The familiar script evoked a smile and immediate curiosity. Over the years, I had come to anticipate the faithful birthday greeting of a lifelong friend. Often handmade, and occasionally stuffed with pictures from the past, I have grown to treasure each distinctly different, uniquely personal, love filled, encouraging gift.
How can two pieces of crafted paper with color coordinated personal greeting become such a treasure? I’ve decided the sender has a gift for knowing how best to communicate love and encouragement in words. This year’s card included the spirit nurturing words of Elizabeth Elliot.
“This year, let us ask God to dissolve all our hopes into a single hope:
to know Christ and to be found in Him.
May this year be one of desire radically transformed,
a deeper, truer, knowing of Christ as our All Sufficient One.”
Elizabeth Elliot
My numbed heart warmed to the message, rekindling the desire for closeness that only a life long relationship affords. How I treasure the fact that though we have lived over a thousand miles apart for 60 years and seen each other ‘face to face’ only 5 times in that time—that the joy-filled relationship has only grown deeper. Such friendships are gifts from God to my life, unplanned serendipities that only grow sweeter as we grow older.
And so it was that I celebrated my 74th birthday… no birthday cake, no celebration, but a heart filled to overflowing with deepest joy!
1/27/23