Who is your birthday about?
Why do we celebrate another year like it's our achievement, when we should be thanking God?
Every year, around my Birthday, I start having the same thoughts.
What presents do I want? What kind of party will I have? Who do I want to invite? Will my friends and family make me feel special on my special day?
This year I turned 25 and I opened up Psalm 139. As I read, I was reminded that my Birthday isn’t really about me.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me are written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16)
It's not about me
I think we have made birthdays into something they were never meant to be. My birthday has now become a celebration that I have made another year. That I have kept myself alive for all these years. And so I should be celebrated and spoilt. It seems to have become a day where selfishness is okay and encouraged.
But Psalm 139 reminds us that it is God who created us, and as a result we should praise Him. Our birthday should be a day thanking God that he created us, and celebrating that he has protected our life so we can have another birthday. He has ordained our days and brought them to pass.
Reflecting on what God has done
I was also reminded of the people God has used throughout my life. My wife, parents, friends, mentors, leaders, teachers, and ministers. God has used all these people to shape me into the person I am today. Really, I owe much to these people and to God for using them.
Again I was reminded that my Birthday isn’t really about me, but God and his work. He is the one who created me, and he is the one who has protected me, and he is the one who has used people to shape, guide and grow me.
So really my birthday shouldn’t be a day of selfishness. But a day thanking and praising God for all that he has done. And thanking all those people whom God has used in my life.
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