Birthday Candles

“Make a wish and blow your candles!” It has been a long time tradition to celebrate one’s birthday with a cake and candles.

Some believe that it started with the ancient Greeks where they often brought round cakes to symbolize the moon with a lit candle that represents moonlight to Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt and moon. Others also believe that it started from the Germans in 1700s where they lit candles on cakes representing the “light of life”.

Today people hold the most common belief that the smoke after blowing the candles would carry their wishes to heaven. How many wishes have you made and how many candles have you blown?

I personally like this symbolism of our wishes rising up to heaven carried by the smoke. However, when I am in deep despair, I don’t want to wait for my wishes to reach heaven depending on the speed of smoke.

Thankfully, there is a means to bring my “wishes” to God, not simply heaven, in real time and that is through PRAYER. We may not see God but His invisible presence is always with us and He hears us even when we cannot utter any words. He listens to every little thing that we pray about.

Let me tell you my “pandesal” (Filipino bread) story. About 12 years ago when my family was on board the MV Doulos for 2 years, we were docked in Papua New Guinea. Back then it was unsafe to go out anytime. So, down in our cabin I was wishing that I could eat pandesal but I just shrugged it off and went up to the dining hall when I saw a Filipina local sitting on our table. Smiling at me she said “Ate (elder sister), I have some ‘pandesal’ for you and your family!” Immediately I said, “Oh, you are an answer to my prayer.” The prayer that I didn’t even utter aloud.

Prayer though is not simply enumerating our wishes but it is bringing our hearts to God with a deep sense of reverence and dependence on Him. In prayer, we declare our faith in the all-powerful God, and acknowledge His sovereign will over our lives.

Yes, prayer changes things that are under God’s permissive/moral will. No, prayer does not change the mind of God in accordance to his sovereign will. But definitely, prayer changes our hardened hearts and strengthens our weak spirits.

When we commune with God through prayer, it is more than a casual chitchat with our friends, and more than a smoke reaching up to heaven. It is offering our hearts’ desire while submitting to the divine intervention of God in our lives thus bringing honor to Him alone.

When God touches us, it is more than magical, because it is real but incomprehensible for a finite being like us. Let me ask you to take some time to commune with God at this moment. You might want to bring to His altar the following: A painful experience in the past, anger that you can’t let go, feeling of insecurity, grieving over death of a loved one, addiction over something, struggles in relationships, and unawareness of the need for God. Name them one by one and experience the divine touch of God like the spark of a candle lighting up in our hearts.

Send your hearts to God not only during birthdays but everyday.

Psalm 34:17 English Standard Version (ESV)

17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Romans 8:15 English Standard Version (ESV)

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”