From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
MIRUKA-NYAMIRA COUNTY
TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012
On March 10, 2012 I celebrated 56 years when I was born Omolo. Hundreds of best wishers sent messages. The one from Safaricom reads: “Jambo Joachim Happy Birthday from Safaricom. We wish you joy and good health on this day and the days to come. Thank you for your choosing the better option”. Equity Bank was not left out either.
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One wish that challenged me most is this card: “You now feel special because today is your birthday? That is a complete nonsense. You are special always”. That it is not a birthday that makes someone special but who that person is makes it special always.
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Jehovah’s Witnesses often reject birthdays as “pagan” and will therefore refuse to participate in them-This because like the card reads a person is special always. Witnesses often argue that there is no mention of birthdays being celebrated by any of God’s servants in the Bible. That is also why they do not celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ.
There is nothing explicit in the Bible that commands us to celebrate or not to celebrate birthdays. Rather, the Bible has given us a general guide on this issue when it says that we should each be convinced in our own minds (Rom. 14:5) as to the importance or non-importance of a particular day, and that it should be a matter for the conscience of the individual, between them and God, as to whether we celebrate that day or not.
There are also some birthday jokes and I have been challenged by this one: “Forget about the past, you can’t change it. Forget about the future, you can’t predict it. Forget about the present, I didn’t get you one”.
Companies on the other hand will continue sending you birthday wishes even if you have died because your name has been computerized just like what the story of Gregor on Sunday March 4. As she awoke on what would have been her late son Gregor’s fifth birthday. Linda Sterry from Braco was greeted by a distressing email from the Early Learning Centre.
The message from the company’s Big Birthday Club wished the youngster ”enormous birthday wishes” and offered a special discount — despite numerous requests that his name be removed from the database.
Gregor died from a virus on March 15 2009 — shattering the lives of his parents, Linda and Mark, and big brother Ben. The toddler had recently celebrated his second birthday and had been playing with friends only the day before he passed away.
Shockingly, it is not the first time the family have received correspondence from the firm — since 2009 Linda says she has been sent a number of similar emails and even a personalised storybook.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA) ?P O Box 14877?Nairobi?00800, Westlands?Kenya
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