another look at birthday

Today is my birthday and I turn 47...Well actually hold on a minute, let me say it another way...today I turn 42+5!

Well 42+5=47 anyway, so what the difference, you may say. Well 47 would be 47 continuous years...but 42+5 would be a more accurate description of my testimony. You see five years ago, I spent my birthday in a hospital bed at Christus Santa Rosa. At the time I had several JP tubes sticking out of me, I was prohibited from eating and drinking due to the stuff that was going on inside my abdominal area and I had a tube in my throat due to a tracheotomy.

To even be alive on my 42nd birthday was a gift of grace given to me by God. Several weeks earlier my appendix had ruptured and SEVEN doctors had told my parents that I was dying. In fact, my brother who is an OR tech (therefore a very reliable source) told my dad that he probably had to get a suit for my funeral. However God had other plans for me, because not only did I not die (which only a small percentage of people who have appendicitis and peritonitis have happen to them), but I ended up recovering (an obvious fact when you consider that I am doing this blog entry).

So when you consider, where I could have been to have been given these extra years is a gift of God and when God gives you a gift, there should be but one attitude-one of continual thanks! So thank you Lord for this gift and allowing me to celebrate my "42nd +5th" birthday!