{"id":41337,"date":"2015-06-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T12:00:00","slug":"happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday from a Bunch of Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the downsides of celebrating your 100th birthday is that you might not have many of your friends around to sing &quot;Happy Birthday.&quot; An English woman, Winnie Blagden, turned 100and though she has no surviving family members and just a few friends, she did receive a large amount of acknowledgement. In an attempt to encourage her, the local BBC radio station sent messages out via social media notifying people that Blagden was hitting the century mark. The station says its Facebook callout for birthday cards was seen some 6 million times since the effort began in the middle of May. Over 16,000 birthday cards came in to celebrate her special day.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em>Possible Preaching Angle: <\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>In the midst of a news cycle that often features bombings, protests, and the evil of the world, it&#39;s good to be reminded that there are glimpses of good here too. And for the follower of Christ, is this a little picture of heaven&mdash;the chance to be welcomed home by millions of cheering but unknown loved ones, and the Savior who says &quot;Well Done&quot;?<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3511,3548,3644,3851,3961,4134,4321,4395,4546,4776,4792],"tax_ctp_topics":[385,395],"class_list":["post-41337","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-caring","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-elderly","tax_ctp_tags-family-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-heaven","tax_ctp_tags-kindness","tax_ctp_tags-love","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-recognition","tax_ctp_tags-relationship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Happy Birthday from a Bunch of Strangers - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy Birthday from a Bunch of Strangers - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the downsides of celebrating your 100th birthday is that you might not have many of your friends around to sing &quot;Happy Birthday.&quot; An English woman, Winnie Blagden, turned 100and though she has no surviving family members and just a few friends, she did receive a large amount of acknowledgement. In an attempt to Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/\",\"name\":\"Happy Birthday from a Bunch of Strangers - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-01T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-01T12:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Happy Birthday from a Bunch of Strangers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Happy Birthday from a Bunch of Strangers - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/happy-birthday-from-bunch-of-strangers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Happy Birthday from a Bunch of Strangers - CT Pastors","og_description":"One of the downsides of celebrating your 100th birthday is that you might not have many of your friends around to sing &quot;Happy Birthday.&quot; An English woman, Winnie Blagden, turned 100and though she has no surviving family members and just a few friends, she did receive a large amount of acknowledgement. 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