Happy Birthday?

This Sunday, our son, Seth, will turn 6 years old.  As far as he is concerned this has been a long time in coming.  You see, he started planning his 6^th Birthday party…O, I’d say…about a year ago.  Seriously, when we wrapped up his 5^th Birthday, he looked up at me and said, “Daddy, do you know what I want to do for my next Birthday?”  Seth has been living in anticipation of his 6^th Birthday for a year!  He has known for a year he wanted to have a “Justice League” party (“Super Friends” if you grew up in the ‘70s and 80s like me).

I, on the other hand, have looked at my 2014 Birthday with less enthusiasm.  This year I will turn forty.  This is the first Birthday that has made me think twice.  No offense to anyone 40 or older, but when you were young, didn’t you think 40 sounded old?  I mean, if I live the average life expectancy of around 80, then I am going to be half way there.  You could say, I am half dead! J  And let’s face it, things are different now. I can braid the hair that wants to grow in my ears, but can’t grow hair on my head to save my life.  So, no…I have not been dreaming and longing about this upcoming Birthday. 

And there you have it…two very different ways of living: That of a boy looking forward to turning 6 and a man not looking forward to turning 40. 

Now, what if we let Jesus begin to speak into this monologue?  He says, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:14-15).  Jesus wants to rebirth us into the eschatological mindset of a child.  Eschatology means the study of the end times.  In our Wesleyan heritage, our eschatology reminds us that our God IS (present and future tense) making all things new! (See Rev. 21). 

In other words, there is a Birthday party coming that will (according to Revelation 21) bring about the birth of a new heaven and earth!  Now, is not the time for us to dread 40 as though it means we are half dead, but to anticipate eternity like a 5 year old dreams about, talks about and gets excited about his 6 year old, Superhero Birthday. Seth’s anticipation has allowed him to experience the joy of his coming Birthday party long before its actualization. 

Jesus is inviting you and me and our church family to live in the same way.  We can let our hearts “grow up” into a cynical, “realistic”, skeptical, doubting, discouraged people who ring the bell of, “It’s bad and it just going to get worst.”  OR we can let Jesus do in us what he says must happen for us to experience his kingdom both now and later and that is become like a 5 year old anticipating his 6^th Birthday.  When we let Jesus do this in us, then even before he returns we are positioned to experience his hope, peace, joy and freedom now; even in the face of difficulties and trials.  Jesus did not die and come back to life so we could wait to die and go to heaven to taste of his victory.  He conquered death so you can live alive in full anticipation that we are on the winning side forever.  Even in what goes wrong, our God promises to turn it all around for his glory and our good (Romans 8:28).

This eschatological hope is key for the refocus of any church.  Will we be a people who ring the bell of doom and gloom?  Or we be a people who shout, “HE IS RISEN!” not just at Easter but all year long? 

My prayer for you and me and our church family is that God will help us to increasingly grow up in him by becoming like a child anticipating his 6^th Birthday.  So, Happy Birthday, Seth!  And thanks for reminding your old Daddy of what of Jesus says it means to truly live.