I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.

Today is a very special day for me because it is the birthday of two very special women in my life.  One that I call Mom…who turns 79 today and the other is my 6th child, Ruth, who is 22 today.  Up until last year we celebrated a third birthday, Dr. William Hoffman – Ruth’s godfather, but he passed away earlier this year.  (Dr. Hoffman – “Doc” – would have been Ruth’s namesake too had she been a boy.)  Today’s spotlight will be on my daughter Ruth.

Of our 8 children, I think Ruth’s birth was the easiest on my wife.  We were in the birthing suite, playing a game of Gin Rummy, enjoying ourselves when a I made a wise crack and my wife starting laughing.  It was during that laugh that she commented I think the baby is coming so we called in the nurse.  The yelled at Sarah to stop pushing until the Doctor came…problem was (if you consider it a problem) that Sarah wasn’t pushing – she was laughing.  And so it was that Ruth came into our world with joy and laughter – I might add appropriately so, because she has been a joy and source of happiness since.  Ruth is a beautiful woman but not what I would refer to as petite.  Her beautiful curly hair, her constant smile and the fact the she is one of my taller girls, I lovingly gave her the nickname “the gentle giant”.  I had the pleasure of coaching Ruth in  soccer and loved watching her play basketball.  It was never hard to find her on the field or the court simply because she was always 2 feet taller than everyone else playing.  The opponents could only see the tall side of Ruth – they had no idea she was like a real life Big Bird, so sweet and so kind and didn’t have it in her to step on an ant because it would hurt her as much as the ant.  Ruth was also someone who would (and still can) cry at the drop of a dime.  There was this one basketball game at St. Monica…I’ll won’t bring that up here.  Those who know and love her know the game I’m referring to but it’s Ruth special day and I won’t embarrass her with that story.  (I”ll save that for a future post.).

As innocent as Ruth appears on the surface, she also has a cynical side to her – many of those who know her may have never seen this, but I have first hand proof.  Many years ago, in an art class at school, the children got to make presents for their parents.  Ruth made me a bookmark.  Here is a picture of the beautiful note she put on the front of the bookmark.

Aw, how sweet – Ruth loves me.  That is the Ruth everyone knows and loves.  But there is the backside of Ruth – the side that maybe I am the only one who gets to see…

Happy 22nd birthday to my beautiful Ruth.  I love you very much.

Do something great for the Lord today – smile.

God’s will, not mine, be done.

Be not afraid; just have faith.

Jesus, I trust in You.