Reflecting on PERSONAL ANNIVERSARIES

Today is Mother's Day, and the birthday of our youngest child, Dorothy. I've been privileged to celebrate quite a few mother's days (or Mothering Sundays in the UK) as a mother - 30 of them to be exact! In some ways they are a special anniversary event in themselves... evoking a cumulative set of memories that all crowd into one warm and fuzzy thought. However, the true "Mother's Day anniversaries" for me have been those days on which our six children were born, followed in more recent years by the days on which our grandchildren were born. So the coinciding of a child's birthday and the generic Mother's Day is a pretty special event.

History is full of many other anniversaries that have meaning for us. The Passover, for example, was an annual Jewish religious festival attended by Jesus' parents in Jerusalem. We know that Jesus accompanied his family to Jerusalem for this celebration when He was twelve (and He may well have been present at the festival, too, in other years after the time of his weaning). It was the Passover that Jesus and His disciples celebrated in the upper room on that fateful night when He would be betrayed. But before the betrayal, still within the context of the Passover Meal, Jesus instituted the Holy Supper of His body and blood. This is the other anniversary that we celebrated today, on the Lord's Day. We partook of His body and blood; remembered His death (and resurrection); and received assurance of the forgiveness of sins. This type of anniversary gives comfort, peace, and strength... and can never come too often!