Can it Be?! Becca is Three!

I passed by … and I said to you, “Live!” —Ezekiel 16:6

Can she really be three already!? Impossible! It seems like just a moment ago I held her in my arms for the first time and now she’s a beautiful little girl twirling around in her pretty Easter dress.

This milestone is always a bittersweet one for her mother and me. By now most of you know the story of our girls. You know that two girls celebrate a birthday this day, but we only get to have a party for one of them. (Though I suspect Hope Marie is having one heck of a party where she is today—where she is maybe the celebration never ends, and perhaps every day is your birthday J.) We wouldn’t be honest if we didn't say: “Happy birthday Hope. Mommy and daddy miss you today...”

But on this day we choose to focus on celebrating of the gift of Rebecca May…

It’s so amazing to watch her grow up! Sometimes raising two small children whilst juggling jobs and ministry is not easy—but it is always good. The bond between my son and I is neat, but the daddy–daughter bond is really special—you dads of daughters will no doubt know what I mean. Every time I bend down to Becca and she gives me a hug and a little peck on the cheek when I drop her off at daycare, or when she runs to me in the afternoon and says “Daddy!”, my heart sings. It can have been a long and tiring day, but her smile lifts me up and energizes me. Every time we flutter about our house together doing our silly little “Rebecca dance” together and she smiles, I like it as much or more than she does. Even when I struggle to get her to go to bed some nights, I rejoice on some level that she has such spirit within her that it’s sometimes hard to settle her down. When the day comes she doesn’t want to do those things with her daddy anymore, it will surely be gut-wrenching for me. You want your child to find their wings—but please God not too soon J.

The name Rebecca means “to bind” and I find that meaning fitting, for surely her presence in our lives has been a healing balm, a touch of grace, a focus on life and on resurrection, that helped bind together our wounded hearts and souls these past few years. Hope means “expectation and belief” and after our experience I would say that we seek to live each day with honest hope. We don’t deny that life is hard and at times difficult to understand, but because of our faith in Jesus we also believe that life as it was “meant to be” is good and beautiful, and we are meant to be the ones who work with God to make that goodness and beauty visible in our world. With God’s help, we truly expect that the “best” really is yet to come—for all of creation.

We will never forget Hope; she is forever part of our story, but because Becca lives—and most of all because Jesus lives—we live fully in the present and stand ready to face whatever tomorrow brings. Because He lives—our Hope endures…