14

Eden, my heart was filled with joy yesterday as I prayed for you on your 14th birthday. The one for whom God clearly spoke to my heart so long ago, "You will know you are done having children when you have another girl and her name will be Eden."

Eden. A garden, created by God, where love flowed. There was unity with the Creator and oneness with all. And in the end, when pain and separation first became a reality, there was grace.

This is the perfect name for you, as only God could have known. Your creativity shines in your many arts and crafts projects. Your love for others is evident in the way you love your family, friends, and the vulnerable whom you have never met. You are a child of God. And even when confronted with ugliness from those who can't love you, or who choose not to love you, you try to see beyond the behavior and are able to extend grace.

So for your birthday this year, I and many others, are thrilled to bless you by purchasing needed items for Backpacks of Hope through the BOH Amazon wishlist. I hope that each package or envelope received speaks to you of the example you have been to me and to others. Keep creating. Keep loving. Keep serving.

I can't wait to see how God continues to use you to impact His Kingdom.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

15 

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:14-16