Celebrating Life

Today I got to celebrate the day that my friend Emily entered into the world. Even though life has physically separated us, our hearts are never far apart. She is still the one that I want to run to first when I have good news or run to when I need a shoulder to cry on. I never had a sister growing up but I imagine she would be a lot like Em, and even though Em and I are not sisters by blood, we are by heart. She is one of those people that I don't have to say what I am feeling for her to know how I am feeling. She can see it in my face and hear it in my voice. We know one another so well that we can tell one another what we would like and what we wouldn't like when it comes to food, this comes in handy when eating out. I don't know what I would do without her. She makes my life a bit brighter by just being her. I celebrated her birthday miles away from her, but I still rejoiced with her and the rest of her friends and family.

Celebrating life is a wonderful thing. Today I celebrated the life of my best friend and sister Em. I love that once a year we have the opportunity to celebrate the lives of the ones that we love and hold dear. However, celebrating life should not be just a once a year thing. A friend of mine wrote on his Facebook status the other day, "stop and listen to your breathing.......whoa, we are alive. How cool is that". Do you ever think about that? I mean really stop and think about how cool it is that you are alive right now?

As I was at the beach last week, I was in awe of God's creation and the beauty of His work, but in reality I did not have to go very far to be in awe or to see the beauty of His work. One of the most amazing creations in all of the universe is me and you. God made each of us so unique and so complex. Did you that your heart beats 100,000 times a day? That is 40 million times a year. The fact that you and I are alive right now is incredible. A couple years ago, I had the chance to go to go see a famous exhibit in Spain on the human body and see the complexities of the human body. I remember as I walked around the exhibit, besides being completely grossed out by all of the floating body parts, I was completely amazed at how complex our bodies actually are.

Besides thinking about how amazing it is that our body actually functions the way that it does, just dwell for a moment on the fact that there is no one else like you. You are the only one like you. Now I know that sounds cheesy and you have probably heard that before, but that alone is beautiful. God made no one else like you. Instead, He formed you in your mother's womb and made you in His image. He made you good.

So let's celebrate life together not just once a year, but every day. Each morning you wake up, there is a day, a breath, a life worth celebrating.

If you have bad self-esteem this might be hard to take in or if you feel like you don't have anyone in your life that really understands you, celebrating life might not be something that you feel capable of doing right now. However, just know that you are loved, maybe not by the people around you, but by the Lord of the Universe you are. You are His and He loves you. He loves you for you, not for what you have done or what you will become.

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat...we must find each other,"-Mother Teresa.

Find one another today and celebrate life together.