By Pastor Leah Fintel Krotz, Trinity Lutheran Church, Bruning
Our youngest child and her husband both turned thirty during October, so birthdays and birthday cakes have been on my mind. When I was growing up, we had a special “birthday plate” that had been used by Mom’s family. It’s covered in roses, and gold script spells out “Happy Birthday.” No matter how ordinary the cake, that plate made it seem special.
When my own kids were at home, I wasn’t one of those moms who made fabulously decorated cakes. I did my best, but I leaned more toward covering the cake with graham cracker crumbs to represent soil and then placing construction equipment or farm toys on top. When our daughter was a teenager, I moved on to making the most fabulously rich and decadent cakes I could concoct, usually involving lots of chocolate, oreos, peanut butter cups, and ganache.
For the newly-minted thirty-year-olds, I departed from the cake tradition and made each of them a birthday pie. Hers was a chocolate-peanut butter delight, and his was an incredibly rich German chocolate. These went over so well, I might permanently switch from birthday cakes to birthday pies!
I recently asked some young people what their favorite holiday was, and one of them immediately responded, “My birthday!” I hadn’t really thought of a birthday as a holiday, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Birthdays are a celebration of the great blessing of being created by a loving Heavenly Father and given a place in this world to fill—a place that only belongs to you. Each human on earth is a unique individual with a calling to fulfill the purpose God has for them—and that should be celebrated!
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” Jeremiah 1:5
