I am Yours

 


We had quite the exciting morning today. Not only did we become members of the Fuquay Varina United Methodist Church, but Grant was baptized at the same service. It was a nice occasion and Grant was so amazingly cooperative. I have to hand it to that boy. He is such a good baby. He makes his mamma proud. T.J. was an awesome big brother too. He stood up there and listened and watched without a peep.

I will admit that I did have visions of Grant doing one of his infamous spit ups just as Pastor Al holds him up for the congregation to see. . . . but thankfully, that did not happen. And there he was, dressed in the same blue outfit that T.J. wore in December of 2007.

As a part of the baptism, at the pastor's urging, we brought in some of our own special water to mix into the baptismal font. Our special water was from the Neuse river. . . straight from the shores of Camp Sea Gull and Camp Seafarer. . .a place that is so special to me and is starting to develop its own special meaning for our enitre family. These Camps really had a huge role in my spiritual formation growing up and I could not think of a better source of water to christen Grant. My hope is that these waters will have a transformational effect on my children as it has had on me. My hope is that my children will find God and the joy of Christian living as I have. . . and that Camp is a part of that discovery. Grant had his first taste of the Neuse river today. I hope he liked it.

The baptism also took on another dimension when trying to explain it to our three year old. I did my best to tell T.J. that today was the day that God came to live in Grant's heart, just like He did three years ago to a boy named Thomas Jacob Brown. Our associate pastor did a better job than I when she explained to T.J. that today symbolizes how much love Jesus has for his baby brother. And because Grant is sooo little, it is his older brother's responsibility to pay attention to what happens today and share stories with Grant about this day when he gets older. I think T.J. took this seriously. But as any three year old is, he was super excited when the baptism was done and he could go to his sunday school classroom to play with his friends, he even did his dance for joy in the sanctuary for everyone to see.

Grant stayed on my lap, and as a perfect baby does, he fell asleep in my arms for the rest of the Sunday service. Having him there in my arms looking so peaceful gave me an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of today. God gave us a beautiful son. And today, we offered that son back to God. Even more powerful for me was the song that was sung during the offeratory. It is a song I listened to countless time when I was grieving the loss of Rebecca-- our unborn daughter. And today it gave me more reason to pause to remind myself how blessed we are with the gift of Grant and how he belongs to God. It goes:

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours. 

 May Rich and I do our best to raise Grant knowing that he is God's and he can always find strength, peace, and identity in Him. I am truly humbled with all that God has entrusted to me.