Dear Jennifer,
I remember the day that you were born like it was yesterday. A mop of curls crowned your head and your body was covered with soft, downy hair. I just felt like you needed some baby fur – so I blessed your little body with the stuff and I said “it is good.” Your chubby cheeks and enormous eyes delighted me too. You have always believed that those eyes are too big for your face, but I know for certain that they are just right. My presence filled the delivery room, and when you took your your very first breath, I was there, rejoicing over you with singing.
Even in that moment of joy, I knew that your life was not going to be easy. I saw the broken road that you would choose to travel, but I did not weep for you. I saw the wounds that you would sustain during your younger years. I saw the enemy, that vile serpent, using those wounds to gain access into your tender soul. I saw him whisper lies. “You are forsaken. You are alone. You are unworthy. You are rejected. God doesn’t love you.” I saw the lies take root, and I saw him place chains on your little body until you could barely move.
I saw the renewed hope in your eyes when you met a man who promised to make everything better. I saw him make vows to you, Dear One. And then I saw him break those vows again and again and again. I saw the fear. I saw the shame. I saw the despair. I saw the hopelessness. I saw you striving to earn the approval of others. I saw you living a lie. I saw all of it, yet still I did not weep for you.
I did not weep for you then, because from the very beginning, I saw now. Although you did not realize it, from your very first birthday until today, I have never left your side. I am the whisper that echoed in your spirit when you were a child. The whisper assuring you that you were going to survive. I am the one who sent angels to your bedside at night. Do you remember seeing them? I am the one who saw the tears of confusion staining your cheeks during that walk on the beach when you were a teen. You wondered to yourself if anyone could ever really love you. The moment that question entered your mind, I sent a wave to the shore that carried a beautiful pink rock in the shape of a heart in it’s crest. The token of my forever love rolled to shore and landed on your foot. Do you remember? That was me. I am the voice who has called you to myself every single day of your life. I am the one who refused to give up on you. I am the one who pursued you with reckless abandon. I am the one who willingly laid down my life for you because I love you. I am the one who attempted to rescue you from abuse over and over again. I showed you truth that you refused to believe. I sent you help that you would not receive. But even then, when the darkness was thick and heavy, I did not weep for you. I did not weep for you then, because I saw now. I saw my beloved daughter, snuggled safely in a comfy bed on her forty-fifth birthday, writing our story.
I knew that if kept calling out to you, eventually you would hear my voice. I knew that if I just kept wooing you to myself, you would fall in love with me. I knew that my goodness would overwhelm the evil in your life. I knew that the day was coming, when my baby girl would once and for all place her trust in her daddy. I poured my healing oil over you as you wept and gave me all of the pain. I took the pain upon myself and I healed your wounds. I replaced the lies of the enemy with the truth. And one by one, the chains that bound you fell away, and you were free.
And now, dear one, I see you rise from the ashes, completely transformed by my love, mercy, and grace. I see a warrior. A warrior with an inner strength that can only be forged in the furnace of affliction. I see a warrior who has the truth of my love for her so deeply settled in her soul, that no lie or assault of the enemy will ever be able to come between us. I see a warrior who has a fire in her belly – a fire that I put there. A fire to preach my healing and to preach the truth of my great love. A fire to take back every single inch of ground that the enemy has claimed for his evil purposes. A fire to advance against his dark kingdom with the truth of my goodness. A fire to be a vessel that I can use to set my captive daughters free.
So your baby fur may have fallen out, and your once chubby cheeks are now graced by a wrinkle or two, but to me you are as beautiful now as the day you were born. My birthday gift to you is this: Every single promise in my word is yours. I want you to appropriate each and every one of my good promises for yourself. Speak them over your life and watch as I bring them to pass. Happy birthday, Dear One.
All My Love,
Your Heavenly Father
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:13-18