Happy Birthday, Rebekah!

Nineteen years ago today, a girl was born who would steal our hearts, brighten our world, and change our lives.  It has been a delight to watch her grow into the young woman she is today.  

Two years ago, when she graduated from high school, I read this letter at her open house.  

It holds true, dear girl.  You are still one of the greatest gifts in my life.  Happy Birthday! 

Dear Rebekah,  

      Nine months after Daddy and I were married, you came into the world—but not into our arms.  I would have loved to have known you then, to hold you and watch as you discovered the world, but it comforts me to know that your Heavenly Father knew you then and knew you perfectly. 

 He gave you your lovely smile and your red curls and placed inside you a gentle spirit and an open heart.  He protected you.  He used your first five years to teach you hard and important lessons, and to expand your capacity to care for the weak and vulnerable.  He put people around you that helped teach you what love looks like.  He gave you a hunger to know Him.

During your first five years, God was preparing us to be the kind of parents that you and Christina needed.  He humbled us and taught us to trust His ways.  He gave us time to feather our next, to collect good books and fun toys, to pray, to study His word, and to learn from our elders and friends what good parents looked like. He taught us patience.

And then, when the time was just right, God brought you 3,000 miles across the country and put you in our home, on Mother’s Day, in the room I had gotten ready for two little girls (I wonder…What would I have done with the ruffled bedspreads, dolls, and Raggedy Ann books if you and Christina had been boys?)

These first 12 years have gone so quickly!  I am very glad you are not leaving me yet, although I know in my heart that you belong as you always have, to God, and that I must hold you with open hands.

Rebekah, God is so good, so faithful!  I will never forget the day you bounced over to Daddy-mere weeks after you came to us—and said, “I am so glad I am here because before I came, I didn’t know God, and now I do!”  The Lord had called you, and your heart was eager to know Him.  What a joy to have seen that passion increase in you over the years!

I urge you to continue to be faithful in your study of the Word.  Scripture will speak truth even if no one else does.  

Seek out godly mentors and friends.  Open your heart to them and allow the Lord to speak into your life through them.  

Pray over everything.  As a woman, you will be called to wear lots of different hats.  You will run out of strength sometimes.  You will run out of hours before you run out of work, and you will always need God’s wisdom.

Chances are you will one day be married with children of your own.  I am already praying for your future husband, for my grandchildren, and for the necessary experiences between now and then to make you into the wife and mother God wants you to be.  

No matter what He calls you to, I hope you will take great encouragement from the way He has saved you, strengthened you, and set you firmly in your faith thus far.  

Daddy and I are so proud of you, and so very blessed to have been chosen to be your parents.  May you continue to glorify God with your life, to trust Him completely, and to rejoice in His perfect ability to mold you, mature you, and equip you for the good works He has prepared in advance for you to do.

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His  incomparably  great power for us who believe.”  Ephesians 1:17-19