Celebrating the Greatest Day

He was just like any other kid, only not. A first born is never ordinary — two becoming one in a tiny, eternal soul. Parenthood remains as it has been since the garden, a holy stewardship granted to the clueless. But the God who gives is always good. He provides.

And this one, he kept us on our knees. Strong of will and body and mind. A presence to be reckoned with. He came forth from the womb fighting, and his intensity only increased. Surely the Lord had mighty purposes in store, we thought. Surely He would harness this passion to His purposes. We prayed, and we believed. We loved and we delighted (sometimes in spite of) and we turned each page of this unfolding story with prayerful joy and expectation.

But God’s ways are not our ways. And can we still say, when our whole world crumbles and doctors offer little hope — when the unthinkable becomes reality, can we still say God is always good? That He provides?

The story unfolds as written, and sometimes He means to set ripples in motion — to bring others into the story and to make our stories part of theirs. The Author knows His craft. Beg though we might that He edit these portions clean out and bring us our Happily Ever After in the big middle of the Painful Right Now, He writes with design — plans formed long ago — and perfect faithfulness demands that we live this chapter before the next will make any sense at all. He asks only that we trust, and even the grace and power to do that, He gives.

And so, slowly, he comes back to us. Awakening to the new, much of the old gone forever, washed away in the waters of God’s severe mercy. He comes back to us, weakened in body, weakened in mind, blazing radiant in spirit.

He comes back to us and to the many who entered his pain and shared a portion of this baptism and whose lives will never be the same. He comes back with a new song to sing, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

Today is the greatest day, and he is in it. It was the greatest day when he made his entrance into this world, ten-plus pounds of feisty fury. It was the greatest day when he first penned those words at fifteen and taped them above his bedroom door. And it is still the greatest day today, his thirty-first birthday.

The story continues, and we turn each page with prayerful joy and expectation. The always good God provides. Really, truly, He does. And that’s a beautiful thing to celebrate.

{Dear friends, if you would like to wish Jacob a happy birthday in the comments, I will be delighted to pass along your wishes to him. Love to all this great day. What a gift to be in it.}