I can remember in my younger years thinking, “I have a February birthday, so I should get some snow.” Of course, growing up in Texas meant days at the end of February often felt more like spring than winter. Which totally bummed me out.
This desire for winter on my birthday lingered as I grew up, but the older I got the more torn I became. Did I really want winter on my birthday?
Nineteen years ago I was considering this question of birthday weather again. I think it was the last time I had a strong desire for winter weather to celebrate my day. That year, my sister was 9 months pregnant with her 4th child. It was cold outside. They were calling for precipitation. And my house was much closer to the hospital than hers. So we welcomed them in, prepared for the world to ice shut but ready in case the baby decided to show anyway.
My niece was, indeed, born in an ice storm that year. And on my 34th birthday.
A few years later, for my 40th birthday, my husband whisked me off to New York City to celebrate. Talk about cold and snow! I think that was the last time I even got an inkling of desire for winter on my birthday!
Since then, all I’ve wanted is for my birthday to bring a beautiful spring day. Warmish weather. The sun shining in a bright blue sky. And yet unlike in my childhood, suddenly those spring-like types of late February days have become fewer and farther between! Or at least it feels like it!
Isn’t that always the way it is? When you want cold and snow you get sunshine and a warm breeze. When you want spring you get winter.
Which makes me so glad that the Lord isn’t fickle like the weather—or my desires. No matter which way the wind blows on my birthday, I know that I am chosen and I am loved. That I was seen before I was formed. That all my days are held in His hands.
Now instead of focusing my attention on what can turn on a dime (like the weather), I am learning to live content in the One who never changes. And that is the best gift ever—a gift He gives me everyday, not just on my birthday!