Birthdays

I like Dove dark chocolate. I bought a new package this weekend. The first two pieces that I ate both said, "Be proud of your age."
Did they know my birthday was coming up this week? Of course not, but a little eerie to me.

I got to thinking about the last couple of birthdays.  One month before my birthday in 2013, I went parasailing in a bay for the first time, with my mother no less. One month before my birthday in 2014, I went ziplining over the Victorian Falls Gorge. This year, a month before my birthday, I went parasailing solo over the ocean, and I was able to see a group of dolphins as I did so. It kind of makes me curious about what next year will hold, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Last year on my birthday, we were in the capital welcoming new summer volunteers to our team and getting them ready for the adventure ahead of them. Our family had just come back from training, and I was excited to put into practice all that we had learned. In the weeks following, I was scratched by a monkey while out with our super summer volunteers, got to oversee language evaluations for our amazing teammates, and attended a funeral for a chief.

Then all plans went out the window when I was sent back to the states to be properly diagnosed. The cancer stopped my agenda, but it did not stop God's. I would never have imagined how this year would have gone.  I am a year older and I feel a good bit wiser. So this week I will celebrate another year of fabulous, that is a fabulous God who has walked our family through this year and will continue to do so. I am thankful for all those who have walked this journey with us through prayer and encouragement.

So Dove, I will indeed be proud of my age!

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Spring is in the air!  The temperatures have warmed and the showers are giving way to flowers.  The magnolia trees are beginning to burst forth in blooms. My weeks are full of end of the year activities like field day.  I am thrilled to be able to participate in my children's lives again and care for my husband, who took his turn again for surgery.  I have been so busy, that I have not had as much time to ponder and write.

The other day as I drove to pick up William from school, the Lord opened up a conversation with my little girl. She is learning the letter "I" at school this week and they were talking about insects that day.  They talked about butterflies being insects and how caterpillars turn into butterflies. She said that her teacher also said that butterflies turn into caterpillars. I am confident that she heard incorrectly, but it was a beautiful reminder to me.

We in our sin are like the caterpillar.  We were created to be something beautiful and all have the potential to be transformed.  Once we become that new creation, we do not go back to being a caterpillar.  It would look silly for the butterfly to come out of the cocoon and go right back to crawling like before. We would ask why it is not using the wings it has been given. So let us also not go back to our old ways after we have been made new.  I wish it were easy to be transformed, but the butterfly does not have it easy either. In fact it is the struggle that gives the butterfly strength to fly.  None the less, once a caterpillar has been made into a butterfly, there is no going back. For those who have truly believed on the name of Jesus and been saved, we neither lose our salvation. Praise be to the Lord! Praise be to Him who does not give up on me but is constantly working to transform me into His likeness.

Spring is in the air! Praise be to the Creator!