birthdays...

Birthdays... are great!  They are all about you!  Two birthdays have been pretty cool to me this week... 

One of the highlights of my Sunday was getting to go to David's 10th birthday party between Waters Edge services.  It was definitely the first 'kick ball' birthday party I've ever been to.  I was thrilled to get the invite... and then i even got to pitch -- woohoo!  David told me earlier in the day that he'd been waiting 364 days for this... what patience!  His family has been a huge blessing to me in the few short months I've known them, and I am honored to know this family... It'll be exciting to see what David's next ten years have in store.  Who knows - maybe he'll have 96 more birthdays... 

96 more? Well, today I found out that the oldest man I've ever known, Emil Lang, passed and and was buried... on his 106th birthday.  They sang "Happy Birthday" at his funeral.  Each year for the past several years, we celebrated his life and birthday at church.  Hundreds (seriously, hundreds) of people would stand when asked who'd been impacted by the life of Emil Lang... It gave me chills every time.  One day  in chapel at Beeson Divinity School last fall, a faculty member, Dr. Charles Carter, honored a mentor in his life -- Emil Lang, his childhood Sunday School teacher... that next Sunday, my friend Kristen and I spotted him at church and she insisted that I pull out my camera and ask to get a picture with him.  I was hesitant, but we did, he complied, and here it is -- at the age of 105.  I am thrilled to have met this man who impacted SO many lives.  I may not live to be 106 but hope I live a long time, and can leave even an ounce of the legacy this man left on all those around him!