Birthday

Before Chad left for China, he suggested that we read a book of the Bible together while we were apart. We agreed on Hebrews. We both read through Hebrews last year and were greatly enriched by it.

I woke up on the morning of my birthday a little before 7am, hearing the neighbor’s rooster through my open window. Oliver was with my parents, so I had the day all to myself. The first thing I did was grab my Bible from the nightstand, slip on some shoes, and take a lawn chair out to the east side of the house to watch the sun rise.

As I was sitting there, I opened my Bible to the day’s chapter in Hebrews, Chapter 12, and here is the first thing I read:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

What an fantastic way to begin a new trip around the sun! I consider Chapter 12 to be the Bring It On Home chapter in Hebrews (bringing resolution to the crescendo and tension created in Chapter 11), and verses 22-24 are among my favorite verses in the entire Bible. So I thought it was fitting that this chapter reading would fall on my birthday.

My Aunt Molly read a great deal out of Hebrews at my Pops’ funeral in April, including these verses. Apparently he liked this book too. It was my first birthday without Pops.

Chad managed to get an email through to me on my birthday, which was a welcome blessing. I hadn’t heard a word from him for ten days. He is alive and well, and will be back in Shanghai today (Friday) at noon, for an eight-hour layover. Then back on an airplane and back on Indiana soil a little after 1pm tomorrow. We will be waiting.

The rest of my birthday was a delightful solo shopping spree. I tried 15 different dresses at Anthropologie and found one that I deemed suitable for airport picking-up. (Most of the others were also quite nice, but fit me like a pillowcase.) I stopped shopping long enough to eat a granola bar in the car in the parking lot at 3pm, and then made it back home in time to have a dinner at my aunt’s (not in my honor– it just happened to be a family gathering planned for Wednesday) and to pick up Oliver, who had a marvelous day with my parents.

After putting Oliver to bed (after giving him a tiny nibble of the delectable brownies someone left in my mailbox), I tried on all of my clothes in front of the mirror (with the mirror tilted away from the wall, to make me look much, much taller– try it!), including a new hat, which I don’t know if I have the confidence to pull off in real life, but I loved it in the store.

But I guess I’m 26 now. Why not start wearing hats?