Happy Birthday, Rebecca!

Twenty years ago today Rebecca brought new life, light, and joy into our world and that is certainly sufficient reason to take a break from the dreary Mark vs. The United Methodist Church saga. Beneath the San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff, Arizona, Rebecca didn’t waste a lot of time entering our lives. The two decades since have been filled with wonder and awe as we have witnessed our two little girls blossom into beautiful young women. With her blonde hair and blue eyes, Rebecca has been the yang to Rachel’s yin, never ceasing to amaze her parents that two such completely different personalities could contain essentially the same DNA (although I have always had my suspicions about the milk man). Rebecca was marching to Thoreau’s different drummer from the start, and she continues as a champion of idealism and compassion that often makes me think she pays a price for being too much like her father. Our daughters are a good example of John Wesley’s prevenient grace: a magnificent blessing unearned and undeserved. And so, dear daughter, your mother and I wish you the very happiest of birthdays, and we thank you for having chosen us to share your miraculous life!