Birth Celebrations and the Bible

Good Shepherd Community Church

Happy birthday! This is a common greeting in America. Birthdays are usually significant in the western world but hardly mentioned in many eastern cultures. The question some ask is, "Why celebrate birthdays?" The Bible never mentions birthday celebrations although there were a number of days marked for celebration in the Mosaic Covenant. In the ancient Christian churches days of martyrdom were kept. The oldest days of celebration concerning Jesus were termed "Epiphany," which celebrated the recognition of Jesus as King by men from the east (Matthew 2) and the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John in which the Father announced him as his beloved Son (Matthew. 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, John 1). His baptism commenced his ministry as Messiah.We do not know the day of the year that Jesus was birthed by Mary. However, we do know the significance of his arrival. The designation of such an event is properly termed the "Festival of the Incarnation." The Word became flesh and lived among us! In Jesus of Nazareth we have the Lord of Glory as a human!Why do we celebrate birthdays? We are really celebrating a person's life, their uniqueness, our relationship. A good scripture to read on one's birthday is Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts."As a Christian, celebrating one's birthday should involve the blessing of the Lord and so my prayer for you is in the words of Ephesians 1:17, "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."