Family. We all have family of some kind. When people ask me about my family, I say well I have a wife, Lisa and a daughter, Cameron. Many will look at me kind of strange and ask if that is all I have. Well both my parents are dead. My only brother is dead and my only sister lives in Dunedin, New Zealand and I have not seen her in about seventeen years. All my Aunts and Uncles have died and many of my first cousins are dead.

Family. When I think of family I relate mostly to my in-laws. Lisa being the “hostess with the mostess” means that she cooks, and they all come to our house. Tonight, was such a night. In the next few days there will two birthdays in the family.

Tomorrow will be Mitchell’s. He will be six. Full of energy and never does anything slow. Because of that, Stacia, Lisa’s sister-in-law came home from Fort Worth. Also, Lisa’s only living uncle, Tommy, her dad’s older brother will be turning 90 in few days. Because of that, his daughter, Lisa’s cousin Aneita from North Carolina is home for that.

So tonight, Lisa had sister, sister-in-law, niece, cousins, uncle, aunt, neighbor, Mitchell, McKenna, and me for supper. We had fried chicken, which made the Baptist preacher glad. We had peas, cornbread, and cream style corn. All of them also had the choice of chocolate pie, egg custard and some other desert. Being the only diabetic in the bunch and not able to eat the sweets, I just ate an extra piece of fried chicken. So, do not tell my cardiologist.

Think about it. Two men celebrating birthdays. One is young, six. One is old, ninety. One has all his life before him with adventures to come and memories to make. One has most of his life behind him, having already lived his adventures and made many memories. He talked about how he had been around the world three times with the Air Force.

Tommy and his family have not been immune to sad memories either. Tommy having lost two wives to severe illnesses. The last one of 28 years this past winter. Both his daughters have lost their husbands to heart attacks in the last two year.

Then there was Mitchell talking about his Birthday party tomorrow night and naming all the six-year-old friends he had invited and how they were going to play and eat cake. So many days of life yet to live. We think.

The truth is none of us know how many days we have to live on this earth. Only God knows. I am reminded of Psalms 139:16, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Oh, how wonderful it is to know that God knows our days. He knows all the great and exciting adventures we will have and will be there to celebrate with us. He also knows the sad and trying days we will have, and he is there to comfort us, console us and encourage us to keep plugging on.

Tonight, after all of the crew pulled out, I took a minute to pray for Tommy. Asking the Lord to be gracious to him, to give him strength of body and strength of mind. I prayed that God would bring him good memories with his daughters.

I then prayed for Mitchell. I asked the Lord to give him guidance throughout all his years. I asked that God would protect him from the evils of this world that he will most surely face somewhere along his journey. I prayed that God would fill his life with adventures and memories that are good and blessed.

If you have family let me encourage you to take a moment and thank God for them and then pray that God would bless each and every one of them.