Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Good Morning, Jesus!! It's your birthday! All over the world this morning people are celebrating this day...a day set aside to commemorate your birth into our world over 2,000 years ago. I just want to stop and say THANK YOU!! for coming as a babe in a manger, knowing you would be exiting our world on a cruel old rugged cross. But you came anyway. You loved us anyway. You forgave us anyway. And today I want you to know that I LOVE YOU!!

I have thought about what to give you for your birthday. I don't have the riches of the three kings that came at your birth, so I have nothing elaborate or expensive to wrap and hand to you. I don't have the power of politicians who reign and rule our world today, so I can't you give any valuable property. I'm not even a leader in the church...so I cannot even install you in a position of authority.


Therefore I have been contemplating what would make you happy, Jesus. After all, you created this world, so you already own everything anyway...and you have all Power, so you do not need a mere "position". You have the final say, for you are Sovereign, you are the ultimate Ruler...King of kings, Lord of lords. So what can one person give you that would make a difference? It was then that I was reminded of what Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians : Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

I thought to myself, "Yes! That's it! I will give you my mind for Christmas! But then I had to ask what that really meant...to give you my "mind". Well, it's something you have been talking to me about most of 2008...ever since I started preparing my message for the retreat last spring, "Hope Springs Eternal". So, I went back to the words of Paul in the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible, and this is what I read in Philippians 2:5-11:

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When I was a child at the age of 11 I knelt before you, Dear Jesus, and gave you my heart. When I was a young mother at the age of 30 I knelt at your holy altar, Lord Jesus, and surrendered my complete life to your service. Today, a grandmother who is still learning how to please you, I want to give you my mind...I want my thoughts, my ambitions, and most of all my attitude to be the same as yours, King Jesus, so that you might be exalted in my life and honored above all others. Happy Birthday, Jesus!