READ: GENESIS 1:27; PSALM 139:13-18

I’m one of those people who likes to make a big deal out of birthdays. Whenever it’s someone else’s birthday, I try to at least send a happy birthday text, or get a gift, or even throw a party. When it comes to my own birthday, I always try to have a fun day planned. I never understood why people would hide or brush off their birthdays. Your birthday is the day that God knew you would take your first breaths!

God watched over you as you grew in your mom’s womb. God knew what color eyes you would have, how tall you would be, and what your first word would be. Psalm 139 says that God knit us together. I love thinking about that image. I think of God hunched over, focused on pulling together the threads of your life to form all the different aspects of who you are.

God loved you before you were born, and He still loves the person you are today. His love for you is so great that He sent Jesus to sacrifice His life for you and become your Redeemer so you could be adopted into God’s family. And even though Jesus’s sacrifice and miraculous resurrection happened long before you were born, it was still a sacrifice meant for you.

And that’s why I like to make a big deal out of birthdays. Because each person is so unique and there’s no one just like them. Each person is loved so deeply by God, and each life is worth being celebrated. • Naomi Zylstra

• Do you like your birthday? Why or why not?

• What’s one thing you like about yourself? Consider taking a moment to imagine God creating this aspect of you carefully and purposefully, and thank Him for making you this way!

• What are some ways we can show honor and value to the people we come in contact with, whether it’s their birthday or not?

For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 (WEB)