On the day you were born

So… I had a birthday yesterday, and it was a BIG one… I turned 5-0!  Fifty!  Half a century!

Haha!  That last one sounds really old!  But, you know what!  I’m so excited about it!  I wear those 50 years like a badge of honor.  Indeed the days are long and the years are short, but I wouldn’t trade a single one, and I wouldn’t go back.

The other day, I was driving and talking to God about my birthday.   I had already expressed my desire for a low-key birthday, just a cook-out with family, and I just randomly asked God what my birthday meant to Him.

And here is what I heard in my spirit:  He said, “Joy, on the day of your birth, ALL of Heaven celebrated.”  He gave me a visual image to accompany that thought, and it was an all-out party.  I wish I even had words to describe it.  Wow!  I’d never had that thought before.

But, you know what?  It’s true.  And even better news?  It’s true for you too!

On the day that you were born, Heaven celebrated your birth.  I just imagine hearing angelic beings far and wide shouting, “She’s here!” or “He’s here!”  and celebrating with all the joy that is in heaven.

How does that make you feel?  You may have come into this world in a less than desirable situation, but you were and are to this day a celebrated and much loved child. There has been nobody else in all of time born with the promise and purpose you are destined for.  And whatever state your life is in right now, God can always make it better.  The Word of God speaks of the promise of our future in many passages, one of the most well-known being Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Because this one was a big one, I heard a lot of the usual comments about being “over the hill” or “it’s all down hill from here.”  But I must politely disagree.  You know what I’ve found?  That although physically things may change, relationships just get sweeter and sweeter with time.  I look at my beautiful relationship with Todd (we’ll celebrate 31 years in August), and the incredible relationships with our kids and their spouses, and with our parents and siblings and extended family, and the precious relationships with friends, and I must say that the investment of time pays off in huge dividends!

And the sweetest relationship of all, with the lover of my soul, Jesus, gets richer and fuller every single day.  We have a history, and a present, and a future together!

So I want to encourage you wherever you are in your relationships with family, friends, and most importantly with Jesus, invest love and time into those relationships because they are something that definitely can get better with age!