As a family, we are celebrating two big birthdays this weekend. My dad, Jim, is 70 and our daughter, Beth is 21! I am at a loss as to how Beth can be 21 by the way, when surely I am still only 21 myself but there we have it!

Milestone birthdays cause us to think and look back and I began to wonder a lot about ‘what ifs’ There are probably hundreds but I will only mention a few relating to my family…what if my dad hadn’t become a Christian when he was a young man, he would never have met my mum and I would never have been born. What if John, my husband, hadn’t given his life to Christ when he was 28 in a little church in Blackpool that my dad was pastoring? We would NEVER had met. Our lives and backgrounds were so completely different from each other that the chances of us even meeting let alone marrying were nil. If we’d never had met and married, then our amazing kids, Chris and Beth wouldn’t be on the planet and their great partners, Justine and Sam, would not be in our lives. And so on and so on….. We can all do the ‘what ifs’ about our own lives and, of course, some ‘what ifs’could be ‘if I hadn’t done that, my life would be better’Regrets and wrong choices are a part of all of our lives but the bigger point is this: If you’re reading this, you’re alive, you have a life, you were not an accident, you were not a mistake! God intended for you to be on earth and if anyone has ever told you any different, maybe a parent or a teacher, THEY WERE/ARE WRONG! It’s not how you were conceived but why you were conceived…

If you have ever seen the movie, ‘It’s a wonderful Life’ you’ll know that it portrays the life of George, a man whose life is good for a while but then begins to go wrong… One night, he wants to end it all because he thinks the world would be better off without him. His guardian angel, Clarence (and wouldn’t we all want one like him!) shows him exactly what the world would have been like if he hadn’t been born. His brother, whose life George saved, would have drowned. His boss who almost wrongly subscribed poison to one of his customers would have killed someone if George hadn’t seen it. His children wouldn’t have been born. George realises that his life does count and they all live happily ever after…It’s a beautiful portrayal of human life and the knock on effect that each life has.

You may think that your life is pointless, you may wonder why you’re on the planet. Just stop today and do the ‘what if’ ‘game’ and see where it takes you. If you regret some of your ‘what ifs’, I know someone who is just amazing at giving 2nd, 3rd, 4th to infinity of chances. He knows you better than you know yourself, he created you for a reason. You can get to know him if you don’t but if you do, come on! Realise who it is who lives inside you. And go for extra-ordinary things. You can start by asking the ‘what if’ I hadn’t become a Christian, the answer? You wouldn’t be going to heaven…….That’s enough to change your day…