For nostalgia's sake...
7 years old
6 years old
5 years old
4 years old
3 years old
10 months
9 months
8 months
Dear Victor,
Happy, happy birthday! This past year you have grown so much in every way. You grew two inches in the last six months (and your appetite confirms that the growth spurt has not yet ended) to a solid 5' 10" to date. Your shoes are holding at a size 12. And you are manifestly expanding your capacity to run, shoot, wrestle, throw, puzzle, read, and work hard as well.
It's been really fun to observe your growth in musical ability and inclination. Your piano pieces grow more complex, and this year you joined the young men's choir at church. We get a lot of joy from hearing your lyrical gifts at work and pray you keep on singing through the challenges, battles, and joys of life.
This year you started up a boys' Bible study with some guys in your class, and this bi-weekly gathering is another huge joy to us. Gathering around the table for lunch after church and then digging into the Word together for some good Swedish Bible study, you have grown in leadership and have cultivated some really terrific friendships. What a huge gift! We pray that you keep on spurring one another on to love and good works like iron sharpening iron.
Another amazing highlight of the year was the whole process of praying toward, preparing for, experiencing, and debriefing from your missions trip to Papua New Guinea. Not only was God at work providing and protecting the whole time, but also we had the joy of glimpsing some of the maturity, flexibility, and spiritual growth in your life in a whole different and unfamiliar context.
School work has continued to ratchet up in intensity, but you are digging in for the challenge, and the exertion of mind, focus, endurance, and creativity will doubtless bear fruit in God's call on your life down the road. Nevertheless, a Christmas break or summer vacation comes as a very welcome break, and you have a ton of fun when there is free time to pick up a round of Monopoly with a brother or go on a long bike ride with friends.
You are a bona fide responsible babysitter, and Dad and I have enjoyed the flexibility to leave all you kids home when various activities take us away simultaneously (sometimes even for an occasional date!). You do a great job channeling the boundless energy of your siblings, fixing supper, flexing to their entertainment preferences, and managing the sometimes-challenging dynamics of younger sibling's quirks and adventures.
As you continue to grow into a young man, we are so grateful and thankful for God's grace at work in your life. Nothing gives us greater joy than seeing your own desire to know the Lord, seek him in the Word, and share him with others.
We've been memorizing Isaiah 53 together, and these powerful images of the Suffering Servant, who came to lay his life down for us, remind me of just what an immeasurable privilege it is to love, worship, and serve our glorious Savior:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we were healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).
We have the greatest King and Friend there could ever be, and how we pray that you will ever increase in your communion with him and joy to belong to him. The best is yet to come!
Happy birthday! Love you tons!
Mom
