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There’s really nothing messianic about it, but I’ve been appreciating the lyrics of an old country tune lately. Written by Chuck Howard and made famous by Conway Twitty, it’s an old-fashioned song that reminds us how some of the best things in life we have to offer are not material things at all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARLING
Sung by Conway Twitty
Lyrics by Chuck Howard

Hello darling, happy birthday
I’ve decided not to give you a present this year
In fact I think it’s about time I took some things away.

I’d like to take away the suspicion
That I know clouds your world at times
By giving you some faith to hold on to, honey
Whenever your hand is not in mine.

Happy birthday darling, I’ve no present, no fancy cake
But I hope I’ll make you happy with everything I take.

I’d like to take away some of your lonely moments
By spending more time with you
And I’d like to take away some of those so, so kisses
And replace them with ones that really say, I love you.

And I want to take away the doubt
You sometimes have about my love
By showing it more, much more than I’ve shown you lately

And then if someone should ask you
What I got you for your birthday
Well you can say, why he didn’t give me anything
But he sure took a lot of things away.

Happy birthday darling I’ve no present, no fancy cake
But I hope I’ll make you happy with everything I take.

Happy birthday darling I’ve no present, no fancy cake
But I hope I’ll make you happy with everything I take.

Happy birthday, darling…

It’s that a nice sentiment? I find it hard to believe many folks who have no concept of G-d in their lives could come up with lyrics like that. As a messianic believer, I’m not overly concerned with romantic Christmas gifts this time of year, but Hanukkah, on the other hand, is an acceptable time to think about such things even for Jews and messianics.

Yet songs like this remind me that if I can work to improve how I interact with my wife on a day-to-day basis, that’ll mean more than ever the most expensive, well-selected material gift I could ever afford.

One of the points of the fall festival season is the feast of Simchat Torah, or the celebration of the Word of Adonai. Jews and messianics alike recognize this as the season in which the reading cycle of Torah is completed, finishing up the final chapters or Deuteronomy and coming back around to the first chapters of Genesis.

What may be less appreciated in some circles is the prophetic significance of Simchat Torah. For Messiah Yeshua is himself the Word of the L-rd, and so, just as the rest of the fall festivals are shadows of the end times to come, so is Simchat Torah.

It is a recognition of the time when every knew will bow and every tongue confess that Yeshua is the promised messiah, that there is no other, and that all members of the chosen people of G-d, born or grafted in, Jew and Gentile alike, who worship the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will come together to spend eternity with the living W-rd of Adonai, worshiping him in unity, spirit and truth.

It really is a significant, though often overlooked and under-appreciated, cap to the fall festival season. Its prophetic fulfillment will take far more than the Sahara hotel to accommodate; it will take an entirely renewed Jerusalem.

Shalom! Next year, in Jerusalem!