My birthday and Jon's have just passed. There's no doubt about it, we are getting old! Some would say that's better than the alternative, but I'd tend to disagree when the alternative is being with Jesus! Being in the birthday frame of mind that I'm in (we've got a passel of birthdays in our family in September) got me to thinking about what a birthday actually means. Obviously you are celebrating the day you were born.
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." Psalm 139:14a
Your parents, spouse, children, and friends all celebrate with you and it's a day just for you. You get presents or maybe a special dinner and a cake (my favorite part). Strangers suddenly become your friend. This is especially true if you're at a restaurant. EVERYBODY seems to take notice and sing right along when the wait staff comes to your table with a silly song!
But did you know that your physical birthday isn't the only one you have? Well, not everyone is lucky enough to have two, but if you are a child of God--here it is---you have TWO birthdays! Yes, two!
"In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." 1 Peter 1:3b
"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." 1 Peter 1:23
So you are not only born into this world as an infant, you are also born into the family of God (a spiritual birth). Once you ask Jesus into your heart you are born a second time! Not literately, of course, but you are born clean and new and into the kingdom of heaven. I'm glad I can say that I have two birthdays. I think you ought to be able to celebrate them both accordingly. Sure the physical birthday is important, but the spiritual one is the one that will carry you through eternity! If you're missing the spiritual birthday, then you're gonna miss heaven and the new earth. I thank God that He chose me before the beginning of time to have a place in His family!
"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God..." 1 John 5:1a
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