Two gift-wrapped shoeboxes sat before us, accompanied by a card. We were still basking in the joy (and exhaustion) of our first-born’s Easter Vigil baptism as we opened the card and then the two shoeboxes: one tiny and one adult-sized. They were gifts from our son Peder’s godmother: tiny sandals and man-sized sandals. Peder weighed 11 pounds and was four months old on his baptism night. It was hard then to imagine him fitting into toddler shoes, let alone adult shoes. But today he does.
As I write this, it is exactly 15 years since that night. He’s nearly six feet tall and wears size 13 men’s shoes. He’s gone from being dunked in the font at the Vigil, to dazzling us with a reading of the creation story. And of course, all sorts of leadership in between. It won’t be this way forever, of course. There are already Sunday mornings he would rather opt out.
But every baptism anniversary, I’m reminded of when his little naked body was lowered three times into our big font, and of the people who continue to surround him. May he indeed always remember his identity as a child of God, connected to God’s people and called to serve the world.
This message is excerpted from a Women of the ELCA blog by Julie B. Sevig. Read it here.
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