Birthdays. A day to celebrate, to be put in the spotlight. (Let’s be honest for some people they now call it their birthday month.) This past week we celebrated both our boy’s birthdays as Eli turned 9 and Silas turned 7. When they were younger we could get away with one party to celebrate both of them, but now they are at the age they both desire to have their own. Talk about chaos in our home. Not only was it Thanksgiving last week but we also had parties on Friday and Sunday night. Our house is only so big, so this year we had to make the choice to let them each invite 3 of their friends from school because until you get all our family there, our house was overrun. Each night around 20-25 guests were packed in to make them feel special. Noise, noise, noise as kids ran everywhere with Nerf guns, playing hide and seek. I think my hearing is still coming back, nope, ears are still ringing. Okay maybe that is a little exaggeration.
When it came time for the cake though, it was their moment. Everyone joining together in singing, lifting them up. The spotlight. The celebration. Remembering their birth. At this moment I cold go different directions with this devotion including celebrating Jesus brith, praising His name, and putting him in the spotlight. Yet the thought that keeps coming to my mind is how as we celebrate our birthday, God knew us and designed us before we even took our first breath. Imagine with me now as the crowd was gathered singing Happy Birthday, God himself being in that crowd singing along. Maybe I am stretching it a bit, but hear these verses.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalms 139
In Psalms 139 David speaks of God knowing our inmost being, knitting us together in our mother’s womb, knowing our thoughts and our days before one even came to be. Have you ever stopped and considered that? His thoughts about us being endless. The God of the universe caring about you, knowing you, celebrating you. You are His beloved, His creation.
Stop a moment to think about that, the God of all looking down on you, and I can picture Him smiling away. With that thought in mind, it is out of that love and desire for you that He sent His son to die for you. So you might live. So next time you are in worship, celebrating Him, think about Him smiling down on you, saying I gave it all for this relationship. I know personally, that thought has changed the way I worship. It is no longer just me looking to the sky hoping to catch His ear for a moment. But it is a relationship. God desiring to hear my voice, and also Him speaking back to me!
