Sometimes, I almost forget about them. Sometimes they forget about me. But mostly, they are meant to be acknowledged and celebrated.  Often they only mean we have survived another year. If that has been a difficult one, as this has been for me, it may feel even more important to acknowledge that, with God’s grace, you made it!

Several weeks before this birthday I decided to make sure I didn’t spend it alone, apt to wallow in a woe is me, I think I’ll eat some worms attitude. I also decided that next year I would have a true celebration and invite all my friends and life-support people. The funny thing is, by putting that thought out there, I found that all of them checked in THIS year! I heard from so many people, the phone hardly stopped ringing the whole day. Because someone put something on Facebook, I also heard from so many people with whom  I have shared the privilege of finding their homes  over the years.

I had offers of dinners and lunches and overnight excursions and calls from my children and an elegant dinner out with my son. I couldn’t have asked for more. Oh yes, but there’s the point. I did ask. I put it out there that I wanted to celebrate with my friends…next year. What a surprise to me that it happened a year early!

You have not because you ask not. How true scripture often is. So simple. And yet I tend to feel that I don’t want to ‘use up my tickets’ in case there is really something important down the line. I also hesitate to ask God for something in case He can’t do it, I don’t want Him to look bad. How silly that I am worried about having God’s back! He has mine, all the time, and if He can’t do something, He still wants us to ask.

I made the comparison to a friend that when my son is out on tour with a well known band, often I would know people in a city where he was going to perform  who would love to see him play but perhaps didn’t really have the money for the tickets, or just as possible, it may already be sold out. Given that he often gets a few complimentary seats, I overcame my reluctance to ask him, and most times he had tickets he was glad to provide.

For my friends, whether he had the tickets or not, the mere fact that I asked was the major thing. They were fine if he didn’t have them, but thrilled that I had asked on their behalf. I believe it is that way with God. He can’t always give us exactly what we asked for, but if he could and we didn’t even ask, he might never know we had that desire in our heart, enough to put it out there. I assume He would feel the way my son would, when after the concert  I said” Oh, I had some good friends who  would have loved to see you”, and he would have said “Mom, I wish you had asked… I had four tickets and I didn’t know anyone in Buffalo! They just went to waste.”

You have not because you ask not. Think about it.