A Birthday Story

A little more than twelve years ago today, a young girl went out to dinner to celebrate her eighteenth birthday with her family. Unbeknownst to the birthday girl and despite her protests in advance, someone in the family reported to the waitress that there was a birthday in the group.

A rather annoying little trick, I say, but families often do such things on these kinds of occasions.

As dinner was ending, the wait staff came around clapping and singing and making a fuss and presented the girl with a milkshake. Chocolate.

The birthday girl was embarrassed. And annoyed. Horrified? Possibly.

As this was a celebration of the young woman's passage into adulthood, she responded in the absolutely most adult way she could to this unexpected and unwelcome event...

She cried like a baby.

And then she ate her milkshake.

Did I mention it had sprinkles?

But the story doesn't end there.

Why not? Well, because God, in His divine wisdom has far-reaching plans for our lives. Plans that, as the Bible says, are "beyond all we could ask or imagine."

As an immature young girl was crying into her chocolate milkshake that night, she had no idea that just a few days later in another country, her son would be born. He would be born to a woman who had cares and concerns far bigger than whether her family had embarrassed her in a restaurant. He would be born into real problems and real pain.

And as the young woman from the restaurant spent the next few years in college, worried about important things like clothes and friends and finals, her son and his first family would struggle. And there would be unimaginable hurts and eventually, separation.

But in the middle of the young woman's ignorance and the little boy's pain, God would be there.

With a plan. And a purpose.

To rescue them both.

To work all things together for their good and for His glory. Because He loves them, and because He is so good.

Today is Israel's birthday. He is 12.

And even though we are not celebrating together, we are celebrating. We are celebrating God's far-reaching plans, and His sense of humor, and His faithful presence with us, and His unimaginable love, and His unfailing goodness. And we are celebrating the gift of our son, given to us long before we ever knew him, but intended for us all along.


Happy Birthday, son. We love you!