Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

1 Timothy 6:18-19

This weekend Rebekah completed her sojourn through the sixties and joined me at seventy, so now we can negotiate this exciting and challenging new decade together.

Saturday was a lovely day for a birthday. Clear and cool in the morning, then barely hitting a high of 77 during the breezy afternoon. The children played down and around the dock; there was another attempt at fishing; David enjoyed the paddle-board; Beks went to yoga with Alicia then ran birthday errands with me; Rebekah relaxed, watched all the action around her and smiled.

The moment Beks and I returned from the store, she took off across the grass with an armful of flowers for Rebekah, and it made my heart glad.

In the afternoon I drove Rebekah to Glen Arbor for some birthday shopping, with Geoffrey bouncing around us like the live-wire of a five-year-old he is. Then I cooked Rebekah’s birthday dinner and we all squeezed as much life out of the day as we could so long as the light lasted.

Finally it was more (mostly fruitless) work at the puzzle accompanied by much retelling of family lore. Geoffrey told me he liked my stories a lot, but that grandmama’s are better – I think he is on to something.

That’s it. I could wax eloquent about Rebekah and the amazing gift it is to be celebrating July 18th together for the fiftieth time. But you all know by now what a beautiful privilege it is for us to sail along as a team and to share this epic journey through the grace and the goodness of life.

My birthday gifts to Rebekah always pale in comparison to the gift that she is to me. Maybe that is why I so often give her art. Because she is an exquisite and complex expression of mid-century impressionism set in motion 70-years ago, by the imagination and the hand of the Creator.

Well she certainly has made – and continues to make – a most beautiful impression on me.

So, “Happy Birthday” Rebekah! May this decade be full and spilling over with love and peace and enjoyment and grace. You know, what the New Testament writer refers to as “Rich in the life that is truly life.”

It is the quality of life we are all invited to take hold of – DEREK