Baby Dedication

My nephew Joshie was dedicated to the Lord in August. The same pastor who officiated at my sister's wedding presented Joshie to the Lord and to the church, and he did a great job of sharing the meaning in Joshua's name and praying a blessing over his little life.

My sister and her husband are about as far away as you can get from Catholicism on the spectrum of "high church/low church", as the Anglicans say. They go to a really laid-back Gen-X church that meets in a high school theatre, in the dark, with candles and a band and lots of videos. Some more formal types might not understand that this is really fine. But a cool thing I've noticed about Christa and Rob is that when something is important, the presence of God shows up thick and heavy. It happened at their wedding as they took some time on their knees to pray during the ceremony, and it happened again during Joshie's consecration as a child of God.

So really, even though I've gone in a very Catholic direction with a lot of formality attached to it, I am always aware that God shows up wherever people are asking Him to, in spirit and truth.

In the words of the famous Twila Paris song:

How beautiful
When humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives
So that others may live
How beautiful is the Body of Christ

At the end of the prayer, Rob did something I wasn't expecting but was really cool - he took Joshie and held him up for the whole church - a moment of enormous pride and joy for Rob as a father, and for us to witness. I have really seen over the last year how earnest Rob is as a dad - and a Christian one especially. He prays like crazy for his family and always asks me to pray for him and Christa to be good parents.

On a lighter note, Joshie's play buddy, Maddie, was squawking in recognition at Joshie throughout the service - it was cracking all of us up. She was quite insistent about it.