jack's dedication

I never told you about that day, did I?

It happened around Christmas, when all of our family was in town - just twelve days before we moved to Connecticut. Jack was two months old.

With his great-grandparents.

With his godparents, my aunt and uncle.

We wanted to have Jack dedicated at Grace, the church we were a part of for the 18 months that we lived in Charleston. They were our family and we wanted them to be with us that day. I am seriously getting teary-eyed just thinking about those people. And thinking about (hopefully) being with them again sometime over the next few years.

I talked about them a little bit here, soon after we moved away. And for the record, I'm still just as homesick for them as I was six months ago. I'm convinced that what we found there was exactly what Jesus meant when he talked about the church. You don't find that a lot anymore, I don't think.

All of that to say, it was so important to us to have them bear witness to the promise we were making to God and to our dear boy.

Andrew and I stood at the front, holding our still-squishy little baby, swaying back and forth to shush his hungry whimpers. Darien talked about how Jack was gifted to us by God. But how he really belongs to God. How we've been entrusted with him.

And we committed to pray for this boy and through faith in God, raise him to know that he is loved more than he can ever really understand. To know that God has a big story in mind for him.

We promised.

Sweet baby,

I hope you know how loved you really are. And as much as your daddy and I love you, your Maker loves you even more. So much more. I pray that one day you hear his sweet voice and turn toward him. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.

Amen.

(PS: You should know that Andrew's family was there in full force, but we didn't take pictures of them with Jack at the church, because we were continuing the celebration with them at brunch downtown right after. And those are the pictures that have disappeared from my computer. Sad face.)