During our 31 years of pastoral ministry, Debbie and I had the privilege of dedicating over 900 children and their parents to the Lord.

. . . 900 drops of oil placed on tiny heads as a symbol of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of each child.

. . . 900 bouquets of flowers.

. . . 900 signed New Testaments—Not only did I sign the New Testament, but I wrote a personal message to each child on the inside flap of each blue or pink New Testament.

Baby dedication days were fun days—meeting grandparents, aunts, uncles, and godparents—pictures galore—video cameras everywhere!

Debbie’s personal attention to every detail and the loving and unique way in which she introduced every baby put our baby dedication services “over the top.”  Though we often dedicated over twenty children on a Sunday morning, each child was given very special attention, a personal anointing, and prayer.

Tears would flow as Debbie recounted the miracles God had done in the life of each child and his or her parents.

We miss doing baby dedications.  They topped the highlight reel of our years of pastoral ministry.

You can imagine the joyful emotion we all felt two weeks ago, on Mother’s Day, when I held our 3-month-old grandson, Grant Andrew Baker, and dedicated him to the Lord at Amy and Jeremy’s home church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Our emotions were intensified because exactly one year before (Mother’s Day 2007), Amy and Jeremy watched other young parents dedicating children, while they felt the sting of having buried their first-born just four weeks prior.

As Amy sat in that Mother’s Day service, pained and broken, she prayed and asked God to give her another son.  One year later we dedicated that son.  They named him Grant, because God had “granted” their request.

We have no idea what lies ahead for Grant—but God does.  His life’s plans are unknown to us—but not to God.  For God knows the plans He has for Grant Andrew Baker, “plans to give him a future and a hope.”

With that kind of confidence and faith, we dedicated Grant to the Lord—as long as he lives, he is the Lord’s.  And then, having held my grandson and prayed a prayer of dedication and blessing over him, I handed him back to his parents so they could raise Him for the Lord.

We’re taking nothing for “Granted.”  We’re trusting the Lord that Grant will grow to be a strong young man, a loving, joyful, Spirit-filled follower of Jesus Christ, who fulfills God’s plan and destiny for his life—who finishes strong—because He has godly parents who are helping him start strong!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Encouragement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.