That Birthday Feeling

                                  Ha! Do you love this, or what?


******

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."...James 1:17


******


It's so odd.

The year I was 36, I kept thinking I was 37. When I turned 46, my head soon told me I was 47. And this past year at 56, well, yeah, you guessed it. I spent the year believing I'd turned 57.

When I did eventually turn 37 and 47, I felt as though suddenly someone gave me a free year(!) An extra 365 days that I thought I'd already lived, but hadn't. 

I told you it was odd.

Well, today on my 57th birthday I'm celebrating another free year ahead. Woo hoo!  :)

Birthdays: a day to feel loved, appreciated. Tom and Naomi act kinder than usual on my birthday, tons of Facebook friends say such sweet words and wish me well, I receive a few emails and a couple snail mail cards.

And God, even, shows me through those kindnesses (and more personal ones), that He's thankful I was born, also. Can it get more awesome than that?

But you know, this need not be a once-a-year feeling/reality. We can, each of us, remind ourselves on Normal Days that we're passionately loved by God and when that becomes reality, wow, it's enough to keep a lady stuffed full of joy, even on oh-hum normal afternoons when people's appreciation feels far away.

That (balanced) I-am-loved birthday feeling! We need never lose it. And just think: while the presence of God envelops us the other 364 days we have all this and Heaven, too:


     "My eyes shall feast upon what lies beyond."  ... copied 


Ok, yes, there's tons of strife in the world these days, but hey! Always, God is greater. He promised where sin abounds, there abounds grace much more. Oh, those free years and years of being and feeling free.

Yes, even in 2016. Whew.

                          (He does! Every day of the year. Really.)



******

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."   ... Galations 5:1


"We turn not older with years but newer every day."Emily Dickinson"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well."Voltaire

******