Those who love me, I will deliver;
    I will protect those who know my name.
 When they call to me, I will answer them;
    I will be with them in trouble,
    I will rescue them and honor them.
 With long life I will satisfy them,
    and show them my salvation.

Psalm 91:14-16

BIRTHDAY REPORT: So our children came through. And the grandkids – in their own way. Four-year-old Mr. T. grabbed the phone from his mom, Alicia, and ran through their Bahrain apartment, giggling. I saw a couple of glimpses of his little face, but then started to get dizzy from the motion because the video was bouncing so much. Later Beks (ten) sang to me. Geoffrey (three) showed me his, “Look Gndaddy; red lollipop!” And David (twelve) called me.

Naomi (on FaceTime with me in this image) sang the “now you’re 68” version of her legendary “Happy happy birthday” song. The best rhyming word she could come up with was “freight.” At least she didn’t go with “mental-state” or “overweight” or “fish-bait” or worse.

Plus they gave me an, “I’m not old; I’m classic” t-shirt. It is gray, I guess maybe to match my hair? Maybe green is just too dangerous!

Coffee!

Andrew scored big sending me his favorite coffee making system. It’s called an AeroPress, and it is just about perfect. One cup/mug at a time means I will still be brewing my routine morning pot, but in the middle of a writing marathon, or preparing just one coffee each after dinner, the press is wonderful.

Andrew said, “This will be the smoothest cup of coffee you have ever tasted…” Of course he has a depth of epic coffee experience from some of the great coffee cultures on the planet! So he is probably right. And this is really, really good. I may have to post a short article on how the system works, it’s very simple but really effective.

Date Night in the Big City!

Then, in the evening, Rebekah took me to a new Italian restaurant.

We drove over to Greenville, which is what counts as “The Big City” in these parts. We had made reservations at Nino’s Cucina Italiana. I will give Nino’s a two thumbs up if you want a more authentic, traditional Italian food experience. The wait staff were excellent and the food was prepared very well.

More than anything, it is just good to slip out of town with Rebekah and enjoy a long, relaxing meal together.

Our first March 26 birthday date was my 21st. We borrowed a friend’s car and drove to the Holiday House for dinner and then watched Rocky at Altamonte Mall. If you struggle with math I’ll help you with the calculation – that was 1977.

The scripture from Psalms talk about “with long life I will satisfy…” Well, the definition of “long” is very much relative, so I am just going to attest to the “satisfy” part. Sixty-eight years is certainly “a lot” of life! And this has been absolutely almost seven full decades of “extremely satisfying.”

You have probably gleaned this already if you read me with any regularity, but I go along with the Psalmist in terms of the importance of, “Those who love me” and “those who call on me” and “those who know my name.”

So that is where I want to land at the end of today’s post. Love God. Know God’s name. Call on God. Do some research and discover just how many names God has. For me, on this particular birthday, it is enough that I know God’s name is “Love.” – DEREK