It's My Birthday!

It's that time of year again. The time when the angels sing really loud and lollypops fall from the sky. Yes, it's my birthday.

I'm probably going to update something in a few hours, but right now I feel like writing anyway. I was thinking just a little while ago about presents that we get on birthdays and I thought of some of the best ones I have gotten.

There is this vision I had when I left my California home of Redding. A man walked into my house and opened up this huge bag of diamonds. Like MASSIVE diamonds. He spread them out all over the coffee table and said to me, "These are yours. Take them, bond with them, hold onto them until you truly believe that they are yours."

So I did that. I started to take some of the diamonds (they were the size of grapefruits) and I started to play around with them, hold them, look at them, treasure them. I didn't put them down until I really, truly believed they were mine.

Then the man came back.

He said, "Now, you must go and give them away for only then will these diamonds be truly yours."

I woak up at that moment with a profound revelation. The diamonds represented a lot of things, but mainly my friends. I can honestly say that you will be hard pressed to find someone more wealthy then me, simply because of the fact that I have the most incredible friends in the world. I don't understand this crazy privilege, but I sure am honored to have these people in my life. They are diamonds of the richest fare.

In my travels I have come across people that words do not describe. They have become part of my life, part of my family. And then the moment comes when I have to give them away. I didn't understand it at the time, but now I know a little better. I gave these people away, invested them to the world, to the nations, gave them back to the Lord... and now they're mine forever.

They are a part of my heart and my life.

Sometimes they come back and I get to be with them often, sometimes it takes a while. But they are always there. I have wonderful friends spread out all over the world now. Many all over the USA, Norway, China, Australia, Canada... it's incredible. Those are little bits of my heart all over the world and it takes my breath away. And I have little bits of their heart right inside of me that I get to treasure, hold onto, love and take care of.

Now, really... what greater gift is there then that?

Sure that sounds cheesy, but just take a second and hear that again for the first time... when you stop and think about it, it's actually quite profound.

Happy Birthday to me! Well... not quite yet... in just over an hour. I'm going to go be with Jesus now and usher in a year in style. I may write more tonight... I may hold off till tomorrow and tell you neat little bits about my diamonds.