Thanks to all of you who have wished me a happy birthday. I appreciate the warm sentiments, silly cards and simple acknowledgments of all the ways in which our lives are woven together. Having said that, thanks especially to the person who sent this message:
“On your birthday, I send you happy rebirth-day wishes! I have no better gift to give than the one you have already received in Christ Jesus, our Lord: His (birthday) presence. May He abide with you always, and you with Him. You have been reborn into a living hope and received an imperishable inheritance. Nothing on earth could ever top the celebration in heaven that occurred at the moment of your rebirth. So, happy rebirth-day, my sister in Christ, forever. Amen.”
Happy rebirth-day. I like that. I also like the sentiment of “birthday presence” instead of birthday presents. I don’t need more stuff, I need more Jesus. I need more Holy Spirit poured into my life, bringing every thought captive to Christ, conforming me more and more into the image of Christ.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke open with the birth narratives of Jesus that we read at Christmas. They chronicle the events surrounding His physical birth. Happy birthday.
John’s Gospel opens with a more theological incarnation narrative, holding the possibility of our being born again.
John 1:1-5, 10-13 “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. … 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. 11He came to that which was his own, but His own did not receive Him. 12Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God — 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”
Hmmmm. Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision, but born of God. Something different is going on here. John is saying that something fundamentally changes when a person believes in Jesus and receives Him. That person is re-born.
We learn about being re-born from Jesus’ teaching Nicodemus in John 3:1-21. Begging the question of each of us, “When’s your rebirth-day?”
Celebrating the presence of Christ with you this day, and always. – Carmen