Earthly and Heavenly Birthdays
October 2, 2022 — Laura House
Among my favorite memories of parenting are the kids’ birthdays. We did all that we could to make those days special, honoring the person whose day it was. Family and friends gathered for games, food, fellowship, and the giving of gifts. If it was your birthday, you received a special breakfast; you chose the menu and activities for the party, and you were generally pampered throughout the day. Additionally, each of the kids at some point in their teen years experienced the thrill of a surprise party. Those were especially fun.
Nathan went to Heaven in March of 2016, so when his twenty-sixth birthday rolled around in October, I didn’t know what we’d do. But Megan had a plan. Gary and I lived in Oklahoma at the time, across the country from our other two kids, so Megan invited us and grandparents to join them on Zoom. She had baked and decorated a lovely cake with just one candle on it— Nathan’s first heavenly birthday. In subsequent years, we invited extended family to join us online and sometimes gathered in one of our homes to remember the day. Amazingly, this week we’ll celebrate his seventh heavenly birthday.
Celebrate. That word definitely didn’t fit the “party” we had that first year. If you are newly bereaved, then you likely feel that way right now. In the first year, or two, or sometimes many more, grief is overwhelming and brutal, particularly on special days like birthdays, heaven days, and holidays. However, I hope to encourage you that although grief never completely leaves us, because we will always love and miss our children, as we progress through this journey, our perspective changes. We change. Grief is incorporated into who we are but doesn’t always define us.
This week as we gather together and our out-of-town family joins us online, we’ll sing “Happy Birthday” to Nathan, and spend a short time sharing things that we miss about him and that we look forward to saying and doing when we see him again (like getting a hug). Then we’ll catch up with each other’s lives since we rarely get to see our extended family members.
And we’ll be thankful—thankful that we can celebrate the twenty-five years that we had Nathan with us. Thankful for the mark that he left on our lives. Thankful for the love that our family has for each other. And most of all, thankful that because of Jesus, we have the promise of eternity. We’ll be with Nathan again.
Do you have children or other loved ones in Heaven? As you trust the Lord through the remainder of your earthly life, remember that you already know the end of the story. A glorious reunion awaits! Until then, may we strive to glorify the Lord with our earthly lives, leaning on Him in the midst of suffering, and “run the race” with endurance fixing our eyes on Jesus.
Hebrews 12: 1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
