Jesus Christ Blog

Granddad has had a triple bypass, walks a little slow, but still fiddles with his 1956 Ford pickup, which he continues to enter in car shows. His daughter says it’s part of how he keeps himself young.

One uncle was a heavy-set man with spiked hair and a Harley Davidson logo on his shirt. He spends the weekends on his motorcycle. He kept to himself, mostly, but was up-front and vocal during the service. If I threw out a rhetorical question, he fired back an answer!

Then there was a close friend of the mother who had recently returned from a trip to Vegas with her three gorgeous daughters, one of whom sang a song at the reception as evidence of her desire to become the next American Idol. They were offset by three 20-something male cousins, all in black T-shirts and black hair. Dad and his brother are natives of Mexico, still coping with the suicide of their mother, and Mom does eyebrows and lashes at a nearby salon. That’s where my wife befriended her and volunteered me for duty.

And the star of the show? Sixteen-month-old Isabella Vita.

I’m referring to a baby dedication this weekend that my wife roped me into leading, and as I stood in front of this group of mostly strangers in an outdoor courtyard in record heat, I wondered about how she does it. What had she gotten me into this time? I’d never done a baby dedication before, and I’d never been known as “Reverend” either, but I accepted it because it was important to Isabella’s family.

For the formal part of the service, I followed a script I got off the Internet, and when it came to the vows from the congregation to help the parents bring up their child in the love and instruction of the Lord, it initially asks a very pointed question of the individuals in the congregation as to their own faith. I realized I was taking a certain risk including this public request for response in a small group of 25 mostly family and friends. What if it was followed by silence?

“Do you hereby declare yourselves to be the children of God because you trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life? If this is true, please respond by saying, ‘We do.’”

“We do!” came the immediate and overwhelming affirmative that almost bowled me over, and the Harley guy was the loudest. It took my breath away and left me speechless for a few seconds. The reaction was so boisterous; it was everything I could do to keep from bursting into tears.

Somehow that moment seemed to capture a little bit of Heaven for me. At least what I have imagined Heaven to be like from reading the Gospels – a gathering of people whom I, at first glance, would probably not guess as being Heaven-bound. And whenever this happens, it hits me once again between the eyes. I am the one who doesn’t deserve to be there, not them.

I’m just grateful they found a way to accept me anyway.