Celebrating birthdays in heaven

Heaven Birthdays are so much better than the ones we huff and puff to put together here on earth. Heaven just celebrated my Mother’s 95th birthday on Sept. 21. I can only imagine. I remember one of her last ones here on earth: she was in her wheel chair, made up pretty by sister’s makeup, wearing a beautiful dress, and made as much as she could about the gifts and cake. Not too long though she was back in her room at the nursing home and all the children had left.

So many birthday parties on this side of heaven turn out so wrong because there are so many different and mixed expectations for the event.

Just think about your first birthday in heaven. No one has been left off the invitation list intentionally or unintentionally because everyone is invited. There’s plenty of room in the banquet halls of heaven to accommodate great-great-great grandmother and all her family as well as all your family’s friends who have preceded you. On this side of heaven, birthday parties and weddings always have to work with the size of the room. Not so in heaven.

In heaven the word is that they never celebrate the day you die. Does not the Bible say in Revelation: “And death shall be no more.” So, no big deal if you died on Christmas Day or a precious family member’s birthday. The memory of death will be wiped off the calendar and you just celebrate your birth because death no longer serves as factor in heaven.

Since personhood and individual identity are supremely significant factors I heaven, your birthday will be very important. No more of this trying to find a few friends and family members who could possibly break away from their busy schedule to come over and sing Happy Birthday and give you a lousy gift that someone had given them. No more of that! In heaven, everyone understands that you were created in the very image of God and that to look at you is to look at God. In heaven everyone understands how much you are worth.

Sure, on earth worth was determined by Wall Street, Futures, where you lived, and if you were one of the first families of Virginia. We should suspect here on earth about the seeming worth of these kinds of things especially since there’s no way to FEDEX them to heaven.

So your birth heavenly birthday is a grand event. Folks show up from centuries ago. They linger for an age or two. No hurry to get home. No one is getting any older. They all think you are the star of the party and well you may be for the very first time in your life.