A lot of people make jokes about dreading another birthday. I've made those jokes but, in reality, I know how blessed I was to wake up this morning on the 62nd anniversary of my entry into this world.
It's kind of funny that sixty-two doesn't sound as old to me now as it did when I was in my 20s and 30s.
While my physical self is glad to be here and breathing, my soul longs for Heaven. I have often quipped that I don't fear being "dead" as much as I fear getting dead. Death means freedom from the chains of the world. Death means going into the promises God has made to us.
The other day, a long-time family friend of ours died. She was 95 and she died as a Jehovah's Witness. She died after rejecting the God of creation. She died in her unforgiven sins. She had 95 years to look to Jesus. It's been my hope that, maybe, in her last moments, she did look to him.
On this birthday, I think about the people who never made it to see their 62nd year. My beautiful goddaughter and niece died before she turned 37. I know of people who died that young or just a few years older during the COVID pandemic. I can read the news and see obituaries of people who died before they became teenagers or young adults.
I am blessed and I know it. My health is poor and my pocketbook is poor but I am blessed. I suffer from depression but I am blessed. I miss my mother and my father and my siblings who have died but I am blessed.
The thing about salvation is that those who have accepted it are blessed in every circumstance. We are blessed not because of any material abundance or physical attributes. We are blessed because this world is not our home.
I thank Jesus for my salvation. I thank him for taking on the punishment for my sins of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I thank him for his suffering in my place. I thank God in heaven for letting me wake up this morning and see this day.
This birthday is just another day of blessing. I'm happy to have made it this far.
Peace
--Free
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