Reading · Monday Morning Musings

Dear Sherene,

Today you turn 23 years old. Happy Birthday!

Life suddenly seems grown-up. Will you make grown-up decisions, you wonder?

23 seems so old.

You made the most grown-up decision of your young life a few months earlier. You agreed to marry a young man you met just once, along with his family.

You agreed to marry him at 22, and today you are 23.

You are 23; you have a job; you take care of yourself; you are an adult in many ways.

You celebrate your birthday. Your future husband sends you roses at work, and you feel strange, excited, nervous, and wonder if this is what love feels like.

You see yourself in the mirror as you prepare for your wedding day. On the outside, everyone sees you as a young adult. But you see your eyes - dark, anxious, fearful, worried, nervously excited, wondering if anyone else sees you. Really sees you. Are you an adult or a child?

But there isn’t time.

In a few months, you will walk down the aisle towards this man; you both pledge your troth to each other and to God, a covenant you will work on never to break.

Life seems all grown up.

You are a wife, a daughter-in-law, a sister-in-law, so many new terms and words to describe you. Your last name changed. In time, parts of you will cease to exist for some seasons. But other parts of you will grow and become strong.

You look in the mirror; the 23-year-old is still inside, wondering, still anxious: Am I enough? What do people think of me? Do they know the real me?

Sherene, today, you are 23. You are smart, funny, quirky, and love your friends and family. You are a pretty decent human. Remember that Jesus loves you and He sees you. You have tried to obey Him and turn to Him every day through high school and college.

There will be seasons where you will feel very grown up and other times when you feel very, very young. Sometimes people won’t see the “real” you, and that is OK. Remember who you are and whose you are. You belong to Jesus. In Him, you are enough.

Every time you look in the mirror, you will wonder. Who sees me?

But loved ones in your life see you.

In a year at 24, life will change again. Motherhood will shape, define, and form you. Those eyes in the mirror will continue asking the same questions. Anxiety and Insecurity will often consume you from the inside, but resilience and courage begin to grow. They take root, they grow strong, and with the Lord, they become your bulwark.

At 23, your last name changed, and you became “wife”. At 24, your title also became “mother.”

But you are one of a kind, just like everyone else in this world. God sees you. He sees you today at 23 and will every day for the rest of your life.

You will continue to look in the mirror often over the next two decades, and while the smile lines and dark circles increase, your dark eyes stay the same, asking questions that change and stay the same over time. But the answers start to change as God reminds you who He is and who you are in Him.

Happy Birthday, Sherene. Today you are 23 and life is going to change in the most unexpected of ways. Not only will you survive, but you will thrive!

The Same Dark Eyes

Comments