He is Mighty

“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

The Lord our God showed us again his might and faithfulness as he stood by us through dear hubby's birthday last week. I can tell you that this was the most difficult first. We have been through many thus far, first Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, both mine and the children's. But celebrating his without him was definitely the hardest for all of us.

During that day we went about preparing as we had each year.....making a favorite meal of his and making his cake. We don't buy cards typically but we make them and the kids all wanted to make cards. A friend mentioned a movie she had seen where they let go of balloons in remembrance of their loved one and so the idea took shape that we attach our cards to balloons and release them.

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Once we sat down for supper it truly hit me and a couple more that the difference was feeling heavy and hurtful, the wounds of loss were raw once again. The birthday boy wasn't there, we felt his absence GREATLY. We made it through supper with a few stories from Grandpa about our Daddy's childhood, "hammy" the hamster who met his demise in the heating ducts of their old house one year, sweet hubby fishing on his way to school and getting so caught up in it his dad had to go looking for him and found him on one of the bridges still fishing, but not realizing it was 9:30 a.m. and he was VERY late for school! These smiles were full of joy, only God's peace filling our hearts allow us to laugh during such a time, He is so good to us!

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After supper most of us went out and released our balloons, up into an overcast sky. I can't quite describe what it felt like watching them disappear, up and up until they were no longer able to be seen. We all watched them until we couldn't see them, then we quietly, all with our own thoughts went back in. It was a little awkward putting out the cake.....no one to sing TO so we sang together "What a friend we have in Jesus" and then "Praise God from whom all blessings flow", the doxology. After that Grandma played some hymns and we did some singing.....there were some quiet conversations, some tears, holding hands, rubbing heads, some moments we couldn't sing but it was all okay, we were being led by our Heavenly Father and remembering our sweet prince, son, daddy and poppa.

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I am incredibly thankful to Him.