Today has been my 56th birthday. Thank you for all the good wishes sent. We’ve had a nice day off in York. I looked back on my timeline and most birthdays have involved food. This picture was on my 50th, six years ago, at the Waren House Hotel in Northumberland. Today we ate in a street food place at York brewery.
What are birthdays for? A day to celebrate us! I’m not sure what difference I’ve made to the world over the last 56 years but every day we try to contribute to a story and we hopefully do good to someone. Birthdays are a day to remember high points and low points on the journey. Birthdays are a day to consider what the world might have been like without us. I nearly didn’t make it back in March 1967. I was meant to be born on 28 April, and I arrived one month and fourteen days early, worryingly tiny and vulnerable. Well, I made it gaining strength from that traumatic beginning. I often reflect how I might be remembered. But that’s a but morbid for today.
Birthdays are also a chance to pause and remember the faithfulness of God. My 56 years haven’t been easy years some of them. But amongst the tough times there have been times of great joy and celebration. It is my testimony that God never leaves us or forsakes us.
When Edward VII, the King of England from 1901 to 1910, was visiting a city to lay the cornerstone for a new hospital, thousands of school children were present to greet him and to sing for him. Following the ceremony, the King walked past the excited youngsters. After he was gone, a teacher saw one of her students crying. She asked her, "Why are you crying? Did you not see the King?" "Yes," the young girl sobbed, "but the King did not see me." King Edward couldn’t have taken notice of each child in that throng. But we are never overlooked by God.
The Church has days to celebrate its saints. We need days to celebrate us too. I discovered I share my birthday here with our circuit finance officer and with one of my members at Dallowgill and more famously Quincy Jones and Michael Caine - not a lot of people know that! (Sorry!)
I like this prayer from the Roman Catholic Church for today: it’s a good prayer for rededication on a birthday:
May your grace not forsake us O Lord we pray, but make us dedicated to your holy service and at all times obtain for us your help. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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