Happy Birthday Girl!

“This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”  John 15:12

Thirty-eight years ago today, my precious daughter came into my life.  There is nothing like holding a newborn baby in your arms.  I wish those folks who support abortion could only get a touch of the love of God into their hearts and realize what a wonderful and loving gift God has given mothers to be able to bring a new life into the world.  I recall the scripture where Jesus chastised His disciples because they had rebuked parents who were bringing their children to Jesus for Him to lay His hands on them and pray for them.  The disciples assumed that He shouldn’t be “bothered” with this request.  But it was no bother at all.  It was a joy to Him.  He said to His disciples, “Suffer (that is the KJV of the word “allow”) little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven”  (Matthew 19:13-15).  Jesus is certainly “pro-life”.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when my daughter was in elementary school, and now she has a daughter in elementary school.  My how time flies.  When she was in the second grade, she fell in school.  I got a call from the principal who said that she had chipped a tooth.  I immediately went to the school and found her sitting in his office with big tears running down her face.  She opened her mouth and one half of one front tooth was gone and one third of the other front tooth.  These were her permanent teeth.  Needless to say, I was extremely upset.  That was way more than a little chip.  We went home, and I was crying by that time.  I called our dentist who saw her within the hour.  He sent us to another dentist who bonded her teeth and made them look nearly as good as the real thing that same afternoon.  He charged us $200.

The thing is my husband had just lost his job.  The company that he worked for had shut down the parts center where he worked, and this particular day was his first day without a job.  Thus $200 was a lot of money to a family of four with no income.  He did get some severance pay, but that was going to have to last for a while.  Here’s how God works:  when my cousin found out about our situation, he gave us $200 to replace what we had spent to get our daughter’s teeth fixed.  We were humbled by that experience.  Later that same year, a family that I did some sewing for provided Christmas gifts for our two children.  Once we began to have a regular income again, we always tried to pay those good deeds forward to help others.

When you “boil it all down”, the only thing that’s left is love.  The one thing that seems to be lacking in our world today is good, old-fashioned, unselfish, genuine, and abundant love for one another.  I love my daughter and my family more than words can express.  Even though there are 1,600 miles between us, I still carry them in my heart every day, thinking of and praying for them.  Jesus loves you, my daughter, and so do I.  Happy Birthday Portulaca!