Birthday Celebrations

This is a week of celebrations at my house.  Yesterday my husband and I celebrated the 36^th anniversary of our first date!  And today one of my sons is celebrating a birthday.  I like to celebrate these kinds of milestones – to make sure that we remember the past and how it contributes to where we are today.

But my son isn’t celebrating the day of his physical birth today.  He’s celebrating the day 20 years ago when he chose to accept Christ’s sacrifice for his sins and decided to become a Christ-follower.  He’s celebrating his spiritual birthday! 

Sometimes parents make a HUGE deal out of their children’s birthdays – complete with lots of presents, food, decorations, games, friends, family, etc.  I had a lot a fun when my sons were still children planning and executing their birthday parties.  My husband and I made a big deal out of their birthdays because we downplayed Christmas giving and wanted their birthdays to be extra-special.  But most people don’t even know the date when either they or their children became Christians.  Why is that?

I’m not sure why, but maybe this is a product of our focus on earthly things instead of heavenly things.  Why don’t we throw parties every year to celebrate our spiritual birthdays?  Could it be that we really don’t understand how important our second birth is?  If our spiritual birthdays represent true repentance and life-change, then they are the most important day we could celebrate each year.  More important than original birthdays, more important than Christ’s birthday, and more important than any anniversaries – because they are celebrations that mark eternal changes.  Spiritual birthdays mark a moment in the past that changed who we are today: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

So let’s start celebrating!  Parents, make sure your children know the date of the day their eternal, life-changing birthday occurred.  Celebrate that day each year – in whatever way you feel is appropriate.  (My husband and I always gave our boys a card that acknowledged their spiritual growth in the past year and a present that encouraged further growth.)  And don’t stop when they grow up.  My sons no longer live in my home; but every year they still get an email or a text that shows them how important their spiritual birthday is to us and God.  Along with our “first-date” anniversary, these are days that are always transferred over each year to my new calendar – milestones of progress that should never be forgotten.  Will you join me in focusing our attention on the birthday that really matters?