The day after tomorrow will be my 70th birthday. I am not yet sure how I feel about that. Yesterday morning, after discovering the frustration that a couple of businesses I wanted to visit didn’t open as early as I like, and facing a long list of tasks, I was feeling that 70 might not be as much fun as 60 or 50 or 40.

Things haven’t turned out exactly the way I envisioned. When I turned 65 my plan was to continue working as pastor of the congregation I was then serving until I turned 70, at which point I would retire. My plans, however, weren’t exactly how things worked out. It has been the case for most of my life that I have confused what I want with what God wants for me. The dynamics of congregations and the events of life are often unpredictable. As it turned out, I retired shortly after my 67th birthday. I retired in the midst of a global pandemic as face-to-face meetings were being discouraged. Churches were going completely online with no in-person worship. It was a strange time for the church.

My first year of retirement brought quite a few worries. We chose to retire close to where our son lives, but rents in that area were higher than we anticipated. We found a home to rent, but had to pay more than I expected. An error was made in the amount of our Social Security benefits that put on a bit more financial pressure. The error was eventually corrected, but with everything shut down because of the pandemic, it took the Social Security Administration two years to discover and correct the error.

Then, when I was 68 we received a call to serve 24 months as interim Ministers of Faith Formation at First Congregational Church in Bellingham. It has been a wonderful opportunity for us. Going back to work and being allowed to work until I turned 70 has been a real blessing. In addition to the paychecks adding to our retirement savings, having meaningful work to do is such a blessing. I worry a lot less when I’m not sitting at home stewing. I know that there are plenty of opportunities for volunteer work and other meaningful tasks in retirement, but having weathered the pandemic and getting settled in a home we own rather than the rental have made the options for my second retirement seem better than things looked the first time around.

Still, I’m not sure how to feel about turning 70. On the plus side, every birthday is a celebration. We have been blessed with good health and even though we’ve faced a few health scares, we have assembled strong teams of medical care providers and our overall health is good - probably better than it was a couple of years ago. I’m more fit and more energetic than was the case in my early retirement.

I am, however, head-over-heels excited about today. Even though it is not my birthday, it is a day I have anticipated for some time. In a little while Susan and I will drive down to Seattle to be there when our daughter and her family arrive on a flight. At dinner time this evening, we will have both of our children and all of our grandchildren together in one place again. I can think of nothing more joyful. And there will be even more, because our niece is already here, visiting with her family. With her three children and our five grandchildren, there will be eight children from one year old to 12 years old for dinner tonight. Add in the eight adults and we will fill our dining room table and the picnic table on the deck all at once. Our super will be simple - we’re cooking for a lot of people. We know how to feed crowds, however. We’ve been grocery shopping. I commented to Susan that our pantry and freezer have never been more full than they currently are.

And there are more people coming. My sister will be here with her whole family. She only has one granddaughter, but she’ll fit right in. Susan’s sister arrives on Thursday and her other other children come on Friday. We’ve got a big enough crowd to be noticed in church on Sunday. And we’ll have enough kids to make up a sizable percentage of the time with children.

When we became parents, I was not able to anticipate how deep my feelings about them would be all of these years later. Having both of our children together is every bit as exciting and wonderful to me as it was the day we brought them home. My birthday, whatever age, seems inconsequential in the light of the joy of having our children together.

I wasn’t there to see it, but I got a report from my niece that our two granddaughters, after getting off of the school bus yesterday, came running down the driveway yelling, “Fay and Eddie, we’re here! We’re here!” Our grandkids still have school this week. Wednesday will be a short day with an early release and the last day of school. Our niece’s children are from Montana and out of school for the summer. The children have been having so much fun playing together. When we stopped by the farm after an evening meeting last night, there were two girls, one from each family, inside the chicken tractor with four hens. When I commented on that, I heard the report that the girls had been crawling through the chicken door into the pen where the pullets live. Our youngest grandson was having a great time crawling through the grass on the lawn and we could see some of the kids running across the yard. It is a good thing they have a farm with plenty of room for the kids to run. I’m pretty sure that they all are sleeping soundly right now after all of the energy they expended playing.

I’ll be sleeping soundly tonight, too. After the excitement there is joy, joy, joy. I know I’m not going to mind being 70 at all.