Birthdays

Every birth is an occasion for wonder and amazement, just like the birth of John the Baptist or of Jesus the Christ. It is like the heavens open up for one moment and one of the angels escapes to earth to take on flesh and be born as a baby. It is the reason why we see and call every baby an angel. Every birth breaches the portal and the threshold that separates heaven and earth and for one brief moment the two are one. Every child is a blessing from God for he holds the promise that God is continuing His work of creation. the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote, “Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged by humanity.”

It is sad how today many young lives are being trivialized. It is scandalous how some people can consider some lives as one life too many so as to be disposable. There are more babies aborted in the US than there are US citizens killed by terrorists. There are more children abused and even abandoned than there are combatants killed in armed conflicts. And many children are today deprived of their childhood and education; some are even recruited to be boy soldiers or child prostitutes.

I pray for the unborn who are killed in the womb. I pray for deprived and abused children. I pray that the world begin to see the sanctity of each and every life. I pray in Thanksgiving for every birthday that is celebrated.

Yesterday was my birthday. I made the effort to respond to all the greetings I got in Facebook and emails. There were those I see everyday on Facebook, those whom I encounter there regularly and those who I see or hear from only very sparingly. Some greetings were short and simple wishes. Others were simply emoticons, emojis, or stickers. There were some standard greeting cards. But there were those who wrote and sent in wishes and greetings that were from the heart. I loved, enjoyed and appreciated them all. For in the online hustle and bustle that is Facebook, we often dwell on the mundane and the superficial. But by making the effort, I felt that, in the exchanges I had with friends and family, we have somehow touched each others lives uniquely and purposefully even for just a moment. And that one moment in time now lives on forever in our hearts and memory. Yes even perhaps in heaven and in eternity.

I am grateful for a blessed and joyful birthday yesterday.

R. I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
~ Psalm 139

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
But they answered her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?”
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
The child grew and became strong in spirit,
and he was in the desert until the day
of his manifestation to Israel.
Luke 1:57-66, 80