Happy 17th Birthday, Christopher!!! (2012)

Happy 17th Birthday, Christopher!!!

 Every birthday is a milestone, a celebration of life.  Each year we open the presents and blow out the candles on the birthday cake!  It is a special day.  It is your special day.  Birthdays are a time for reflection, as well as, a time to look forward to the future.  It is a day to give thanks for the gift of another year of life.

Make a wish!

Certain birthdays have special significance.  Baby's first birthday is an important day to celebrate everything that is new...first party, first birthday card, first birthday cake.  Then there is the 18th birthday which represents a turning point from childhood to adulthood, and who can forget the 21st birthday when all the trappings of adulthood are realized?  Other special birthdays include the "new decade" birthdays  like "the big" 30, 40, 50, and so on.  Each one marks a new season of life. 

The 16th birthday is a milestone birthday too.  It is often referred to as the "sweet 16" birthday.  It is sweet because it represents the pinnacle of the teenage years, but 16 is also special for another reason.  It represents an opportunity for a new found freedom, the freedom to drive a car.  A whole new world opens up when you earn that shiny new drivers license and drive off all by yourself for the very first time.  It is an exhilarating feeling for teenagers, but it is a NAIL BITING time for parents as they watch their baby drive out from under the safety of that parental umbrella.

Birthday party!

On the day of his 16th birthday, Christopher's appointment for his driving test had already been scheduled.  A part of me hoped he wouldn't pass right away, but I knew it would only forestall the inevitable.  Despite my hesitation and fears, he passed his driving test with flying colors the first time he took it, and before I knew it I was watching him "fly out" of our driveway with his new drivers license in hand.  It was a very bittersweet moment to be sure.  Christopher was thrilled, but my husband and I just had something new to worry about.  Maybe sweet 16 wasn't so sweet after all.

Just for you!

As it turned out, it wasn't the freedom to drive that made Christopher's 16th year so sweet and so unique from all his other birthdays.  God had some VERY SWEET plans for Christopher's "sweet 16."  God had a very sweet, very unique gift that He would give Christopher.  It was the gift of a miracle healing.  Christopher would begin his 16th year tethered to a feeding tube, but he would end it with a license to...EAT!  It was an unexpected, instant healing miracle.  It was a precious and priceless gift. 

The BEST gift!

Then on April 9, 2012 Christopher celebrated his 17th birthday.  The 17th birthday isn't usually considered to be one of those big birthdays with special significance, but it certainly was for Christopher.  It was bigger and better than all the other birthdays that he had celebrated before.  There were the customary presents, cards, and candles on the birthday cake.  There were lots of the usual wishes for a happy and healthy year, but this birthday was different because Christopher's 17th birthday was actually his FIRST birthday.  It was the FIRST birthday that he could actually EAT his birthday cake!  It was a reflection on God's healing miracle, as well as, a symbol of sweet hope for a future with food!

Yum!

Thank you, God for my Christopher!  Thank you, God for 17 years!  Thank you, God for healing Christopher, so that he could enjoy his birthday cake.  His choice was an ice cream cake, and his eyes lit up with delight as he tasted that first bite.   It was the sweet taste of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.  It was the sweet taste of grace!

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:

More tomorrow...