22 Oct A Letter to My Firstborn on Her 10th Birthday

My Dearest Grace Yael,

The day you were born was unlike any other I have known. As you know, we weren’t expecting you that day, since it was five weeks before you were due. I was on the metro coming home from work and asked the Lord, not really expecting an answer, whether you would be early, late, or on time. In that moment, He surprised me by speaking to my heart, “she’s six pounds,” which left me puzzled, as it wasn’t the answer to the question I had asked. I got home and told your father what the Lord spoke to my heart on the metro. And only moments later, my water unexpectedly broke.

Grace, you know the story well. I was worried about your well-being since you were premature. And yet your father calmed me by saying, “You wondered why God told you she is six pounds. Well, what does six pounds mean to you now?” I said, “That she’s a healthy baby!” This one word from the Lord gave me peace about your birth that day and I wrote about here in a letter to you on your sixth birthday:

“You are not a baby anymore. But God still knows every ounce of your frame, every hair on your head, every detail of every moment of your life. Every sigh you breathe, every tear that falls, every peal of laughter that sounds forth from your lips. You, my dear daughter, were and are fearfully and wonderfully made. And that point was driven deep with the details of your birth:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” – Psalm 139: 13-14″

And now you are 10 years old! I am sobered as I reflect on this truth: “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah” (Psalm 39:5). Indeed, how quickly ten years have flown by! And look at all that God has done in your life, my dear daughter!

A Celebration of Grace

Ten. The number sounds so complete. A rounding out of the first half of your childhood; a mathematical milestone, stopping point, and place value holder. And of life lived, what is ten?

Ten to me says this – your babyhood is now behind you. You now begin your first tentative steps into young adulthood and I smile. As firstborn, you have always been the trailblazer, but you’re not going it alone.

For every stage of your journey, it’s been new for the both of us. New for you as a child and new for me as a mother. So we can laugh and fumble our way through any of the awkward “firsts” of adolescence together.

My deeply loyal, hard-working, far-reaching daughter, as your mommy, I’m crazy proud of the young lady you are growing to become. Can I give you a word of encouragement as you begin this new season?

We named you Grace. And you have chosen to receive without merit the grace of your Savior. Your call now is only to keep receiving His grace every day.

His Grace is Sufficient for You

You remember Jacob – the man who slept on stone and dreamed of a ladder to heaven. Remember that God came down to him – He couldn’t climb up to God.

We talk gospel every day, you and me. Because the Cross knocks down our Towers of Babel and strivings of self and levels us as sinners in need of grace. We cling to His grace every day as we remember that it is through Him that we live and move and have our being. All is grace (there’s your name again!) and when you write it on paper, sing it in church, recite it in Scripture memory, remember:

Your life, my dear, is a gift of God’s grace – His unmerited favor and undeserved blessing – in our lives. So work hard and play hard for the JOY of it! But know this through it all: you already stand in all the favor, all the blessing, all the acceptance you will ever need because you stand in the love of Christ which nothing will ever be able to separate you from.

I bless you, my daughter, on this your tenth year of life: May your life be an enthusiastic celebration of the inexhaustible grace of God! As you grow into young adulthood, may you stand confident in the freedom of the gospel, being transformed in every way by His grace as you champion His grace to others.

May you have eyes to see the beauty of God even in your most difficult days. May you come to know in the depths of your heart that His grace truly is sufficient for you and His power can bear you up even in your weakest moments.

There is nothing you can do to make God love you more and nothing you can do to make God love you less. There is nothing you can do to make your father and I love you more and nothing you can do to make us love you less.

You are held in every way by love.

I’m pretty excited to see what this next decade will hold for you!

Journeying Together,

Mommy