Missing Birthday Boy

He's missing this year and we're missing him.

Adrian turned four last May 5, and for the first time, he did not fly home to the Philippines to celebrate his birthday with us.  For the past three years, his parents usually scheduled their yearly vacation to coincide with Adrian's birthday, so we had been blessed to have him on his first, second, and third birthdays. 

This year's different. Vacation leave schedules have gone haywire due to  a series of fortunate events. And so we celebrated the birthday boy's special day via the internet—through crisp and clear photos taken by his mother.  We greeted him on the phone and heard his voice, which is somehow different from the way it sounded a year ago.

This is the age of distance:  Distance education, distance communication, distance diplomacy, distance business, and distance relationships. 

We share the experience of distance grandparenting with thousands of others whose children have gone over and yonder—to other countries.  

But we thank God for the advances in technology that make it possible for grandparents and grandchildren, parents and offspring, nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, friends and loved ones to be in touch with one another more frequently than ever before.

Adrian: "I am an animal coming out of my habitat."

Surely, distance-wise we are missing our missing birthday boy, but we are grateful that grace is never distant. It is with Adrian and his parents in whatever they do; and across the miles, it with us in everything we go through.

Grace has always been within our grasp, just a hair's breath away—or closer.