Since my birthday was Monday, I’ve been thinking I should write a birthday post. I was trying to think of something profound to say for my 34 years. I read this today on another blog, and I think it captures who I want to be whether I’m 34 or 104–stretched out in pursuit of the life God has planned for me.
I wrote of her once, “She was the most alive, most vibrant, most winsome woman – and although she was born in an era when a woman’s life was defined by her marital status, Jane’s was not. She kept growing until the day she died – and she encouraged others to do the same. I used to look at Jane and think, Oh, God, don’t let me become like her. Now I remember her and implore him to do just that: to make me a beautiful, loving woman who’s stretched out in pursuit of the life He’s planned just for me.”
Today is her birthday. She would have been 103. A few days before she died at 91, I asked one of the pastors who’d been to see her how she looked. “Like a girl getting ready for her first date,” he told me. And I remembered hearing her singing in her fluttering voice: “The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows; the more that I love Him, more love He bestows; Each day is like heaven, my heart overflows; the longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.”
