God’s grace works as we add candles to our birthday cakes.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

What is it about birthday candles that are so mesmerizing? Are the candles themselves hypnotic, or is it what they represent? Is it the hope of a wish coming true? Is it the knowledge that for one moment a song will be sung in our honor?

There is something wonderful about watching a child blow out birthday candles.

Maybe it’s because the candles are still easy to blow out with one breath.

Something happens inside of us each year we add a new candle to the birthday cake, though it doesn’t happen right away. At some point in our lives the candles no longer mesmerize us, but remind us of our mortality.

So, we stop counting, or we put fewer candles on the cake using the excuse that it would take too long to light them. We laugh and yet we cry.

However, the grace of God works something else in our lives.

“They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31 English Standard Version

There is a renewal that takes place inside of us because of the work of the Holy Spirit even when we dread the next candle added to the cake.

It’s not long and twenty candles turn into thirty, and thirty candles turn into sixty, but the grace of God is always at work causing us to sit mesmerized at his love no matter how brightly the birthday cake glows.

Text and Picture Copyright Douglas P Brauner