I Was Born Here!

“My brother was born here.
...........So was my aunt and my Mum.
................ ....and me too”

The Portuguese graffiti on the wall of the men’s lavatory in the Maternidade Dr Alfredo G Costa was intriguing. Not least because it was a lot less offensive than most of the graffiti you see in men’s toilets. But ... I mean ... do you know offhand where your various relatives saw the first light of day. It’s not the sort of information you tend to retain in your head. Some of us would be hard pushed to know which hospital it was in which even we ourselves popped out, a screaming bundle of energetic humanity, into the world.

I guess it’s a mark of the affection in which this noble institution is held in the hearts of Lisboetas. Not so much a medical facility, more a celebration of motherhood. According to our friend, Maria, the majority of this city’s inhabitants can claim their birthplace here. According to their website 5589 babies have been born there since the beginning of this year. Considering the population of the Greater population of Lisbon is 2.8 million, that’s a fair few babies.


And one of those little items is called Gabriel!!

He was born at 11am Saturday morning to proud parents Patricia and Milton Sanches, and is the latest little addition to our fellowship. I wonder, Gabriel, what life has got in store for you. I pray it will be good, and that you will enjoy discovering all that God has lined up for you.



Because at the end of the day, what’s important is not so much where you were born, or where you’ve come from, but where you’re going. Next week we will celebrate a historic birthday that took place in a roughly hewn stable in a corner of Palestine a couple of thousand years ago. But if Jesus had gone back there twenty years later, to see if he could carve his initials and “I was born here” on the wall, he may well have found it no longer existed. The birthplace of Jesus was important and it’s great to celebrate it, but far more important, is the destiny and plan and purpose that was contained in his life. That purpose that drew him and , eventually, in the fullness of time, took him an early death in his thirties - but a death that would change mankind for ever.

Celebrate his Birth!

Celebrate His Death!

Celebrate His Resurrection!

Celebrate His Life Forevermore!