Birthday’s are such fun.  Tuesday was my daughter Becky’s 30th. Now, there is no way that I am old enough to have my youngest child to be turing 30!  But as the picture shows, there may only be one candle in the bowl of delicious chocolate sauce that we used on the fresh fruit dessert, but it does represent the first three decades of a beautiful life.  I couldn’t be any more proud of my daughter, her two beautiful children, and the amazing husband that God has blessed her with.  They head off shortly into a new phase of life, being interim managers with Chick-Fil-A at restaurants that are needing a turn around specialist.  Great opportunity and great responsibility.

I can’t help but think back to what Felicity and I were doing at the age of 30.  1980 seems a long time ago.  We also had two children at that stage, soon to become four, and we also were facing many opportunities and changes.  A busy medical practice, a rapidly growing inner city church, and the pressures of a rapidly growing ministry that worked with physicians across the UK were all making demands on our time.  Birthdays were a wonderful moment to stop and smell the roses; to notice the passage of time and rejoice in the goodness of God in the family around us.

We all need moments when we stop and celebrate.  It was around 1980, when one of our good friends in the church we were planting wrote the song:

“Come On And Celebrate,

His gift of love, we will celebrate,

The Son of God who loved us, And gave us life!

We’ll shout your praise oh King

You give us joy nothing else can bring.

We’ll give to you our offering

Of celebration praise.”  Trish Morgan and Dave Bankhead

Birthdays!  Please pass some more of that heavenly chocolate sauce and fresh fruit.  And yes, let’s shout to God our offering of celebration praise