The Wilful Sunflower

I turn 26 today. Funny, isn't it, how one day is supposed to be more momentous than the others but still feels just the same? :)

I woke up today and my first thought was, wow, it's good to be alive (the fact that my sniffles & sore throat have nearly disappeared completely helped somewhat). Now, I rarely wake up in such an uplifting frame of mind, so that's pretty unusual. Most of the time it's more like, "Do I have to get out of bed?"

But today I woke up and my foremost emotion was gratitude. As I look back upon my life -- all 26 years of it -- I'm amazed all over again at God's faithfulness to me. It's not that He's done huge miracles for me or anything, neither have things been smooth going all the time; it's just the fact that He's been there in my life throughout the years and still hasn't given up on me yet. I find that humbling.

In previous years I used to keep count of the number of people wishing me "happy birthday" and the number of cards I got. Mom used to tell me not to measure the number of my friends by the amount of people who remembered my birthday, but I couldn't help it. And I used to feel depressed when less and less people seemed to care as the years went by. (Hear that self-pitying sniffle?)

I guess it's a sign of maturity that I no longer feel that way, maybe also coz I'm developing a tendency to forget people's birthdays myself. The less perfect I become, the less perfect I insist others be. And the less perfect I become, the more I treasure God's grace and goodness to me.