This Is Your Day! Celebrate!

Do you have a birthday affected by stay-at-home orders? I’m sorry if you do.

I know it’s difficult to celebrate a birthday the way we normally do. Though we may not have a gathering, we can still celebrate.

I’ve heard about so many creative solutions to stay-at-home birthday celebrations. Here are a few…

• Friends and family standing outside nursing homes and assisted living facilities, holding signs and singing.
• Putting signs in the birthday person’s yard, letting them know you wish them a happy birthday. That is something my wife and I did for a neighbor across the street. We put a small ‘Happy Birthday’ sign next to their mailbox with a basket of goodies. We couldn’t be with her, but we still let her know we cared.
• Zoom, Google Hangouts, or some other virtual party where you can see and hear your friends and family, even when you can’t be with them.
• Drive-by parties. I had the news on as I drafted this post. A video showed a line of firetrucks, complete with sirens, lights, and horns, driving through a neighborhood as a young boy stood in his front yard. All this to wish him a Happy Birthday.
• Sisters having a party of two. They sat outside, situated well beyond the recommended six-foot distancing suggestion, having a drink and catching up.

You may think that’s all well and good, but it’s no substitute for gathering with friends and family where we can hug, kiss, and enjoy the day without worrying about getting sick. I won’t argue with that. It’s not a proper substitute at all.

Our family celebrates birthdays monthly. We usually have a big celebration almost every month. For instance, we pick a day in April to celebrate the birthdays of our two sons-in-law (my wife calls them sons-in-love). For sure, there will be no April gathering. We’re saddened by that, but I know those two young men still have reason to celebrate.

As do you.

I’ve tried over the past year to post about hope on a weekly basis. The hope I share doesn’t rely on cakes, ice cream, or gatherings. It doesn’t rely on friends or family.

Our Hope Relies on Jesus.

My prayer is that you have this hope. I pray you experience a confidence in God’s faithfulness and promises.

So, when you wake on your birthday and no one is there to celebrate with you, I encourage you to set your sights on God. He created the day. He holds it together and knows exactly what you are going through. No one else can make that claim.

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May you rejoice in the day, whether you are under a stay-at-home order or not. And when it’s someone else’s birthday, call them and rejoice with them. You may be the very one who passes the hope you have onto them.

As the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 118:24 (NASB)

“This is the day which the LORD has made;

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Do you have a birthday or know of someone’s birthday impacted by stay-at-home guidelines? How did, or how will you or they celebrate?