An Almost Easter Birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday and since it is almost on Easter Sunday this year, I started thinking back to the times my birthday fell on Easter. I remembered my 21st being on Easter (much to my chagrin back then) but I couldn't recall the others so I consulted Google. My 10th and 16th were both on Easter. But the next time my birthday falls on Easter?  

2071. 

So my 10th, 16th, 21st and not again until my 100th? How odd.  I suppose I could make it my life's goal to live to see it. I'd probably be featured on the evening news and everything. "LOCAL WOMAN TURNS 100 ON EASTER SUNDAY". I can picture me now, wearing my Easter party hat, hunched over a coconut bunny cake aglow with candles with (no doubt) a little Dachshund on my lap. 

It could happen.

But if I've learned anything in the past 43 years, it's that we can never be entirely sure where our future will take us or just how long (or short) it will turn out to be. I came across this quote a couple of weeks ago and thought, Wow. That is so simple yet so incredibly profound...

source

Have you ever read more humbling words?  

Temporary. All of it. Temporary.

I was completely unaware that in walking through Darin's front door (literally) twenty years ago that I was also walking into the next big chapter of my life. I was about to graduate college in a few weeks, had been in a roller-coaster-wishy-washy-type relationship for the past two years and had absolutely no idea whatsoever that I was about to meet my future husband on my 23rd birthday but that's how God works. He gives us exactly what we need, when we need it, whether we always realize it or not. 

Our greatest blessings are often like that though, sneaking in on us when we least expect them.

So this year, on my 43rd birthday, I will look back on the past twenty years of my life and be thankful...

for the love they've brought,

for the beauty they've shown,

for the laughter they've known,

for the wisdom they've acquired,

and even for the storms...

For without them, as hard as they were to weather, I would have never gained the depth of strength and faith that I have today. And as difficult as it is to think about, I know with much certainty that the next twenty years will bring their fair share of storms my way too. But the good news is, Jesus will carry me through each and every one, just as He always has. 

And just as He will you. You need only to ask.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28: 16-20)

He is risen indeed!

Happy Easter!