When most of us think of our birthdays, we probably have flashbacks to childhood. When I was three, my parents put together a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs party for me. The icing on the cake (pun intended) — besides the love poured into it — was the Dopey cookie. Mom had all seven of the little guys around the cake, but he was my favorite. I sensed a kinship early on.

That Dopey memory gets us to a key reason birthdays are big deals: People need to know they are loved and a blessing to the world. They need to know that it's not their successes that give them irrevocable value; it's simply their existence. If you are a believer in God, we should be seeing God in one another, because he cared to think of the idea of you and me in the first place.

From hanging around the religious service group Sisters of Life, I've gotten a taste of what life without birthdays can be like. Some of the women who come to them........

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