Birthday Blessings

By Belinda

I get to celebrate a birthday today, and on the blog of one of my friends, Dave, is the first gift of this day, his post: DB

I am fabulously rich in the dear friends and family God has blessed me with. They grow more precious with every year. How grateful I am for them.

Last night at cell group, Paul was the master of dessert; so justifiably proud of the huge sponge cake with fresh cream frosting and strawberry and cream filling, made to order at one of the Portuguese bakeries in Bradford. He outdid himself in the ordering! :)


Susan sat with me for a "second cup" of decaff, after our other friends had gone home, and we sat and talked and celebrated a long friendship that runs deep and strong.


When I came into the kitchen from bidding Susan goodbye, on the table lay an envelope with the word, "Mom." The words on the card inside made me want to hug my daughter.


Relationships are so unspeakably precious. Pain; tears; forgiveness; love; joy; endless work--worth it. So worth it.


I thank God for the day I was born into this wonderful world of relationship.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Everything in this world is around relationships. Our relationship with God and His Son. Our relationship with others. It is good to be thankful - for both.
4:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Voyage

Image
Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the ...
Read more

Ere Zij God--Glory to God in the Highest! A Dutch Carol

Image
By Belinda This beautiful Dutch carol was shared today by a friend of Dutch ancestry, on Facebook. I had never heard it before but absolutely loved it. It moved me deeply, especially at the end after the crowd leaves the church and then breaks into spontaneous singing again around a brazier, with the sound of chiming church bells in the background. Listen to it with headphones or a good speaker to get the full effect of the harmonies. And happy first Sunday in Advent!
Read more

Samson Beaver and his Family

Image
I first posted this in 2009, a little show and tell about one of my favourite photographs. Back then it hung on a wall, but now it's in my bathroom where I see it every morning! I'd forgotten the history behind the story, researched when I first posted this and thought that current readers might enjoy it--a story from a time when this land was still being discovered, not so very long ago. This photograph was taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907. It is of a Stoney Indian named Samson Beaver, with his wife Leah and daughter, Frances Louise. I bought the photo on a postcard, on a trip to British Columbia and it hangs framed, on the wall I face when sitting at my laptop. I love it. Don't you just feel as if you could gather Frances Louise up in your arms and cuddle her? I get a deep sense of peace and happiness when I look at this family, sitting in the grass of a long ago fall. They are dressed in their best, beautiful c...
Read more