Jocelyn and I took advantage of her family being in town to have Julia dedicated at our church this afternoon. In the chapel where Jocelyn and I were married and with a few who had been a part of that great day, the pastor who married us dedicated our Julia, drawing from the Old Testament story of Hannah and her son Samuel as inspiration.
It’s a tradition at Kensington for the parents to offer their thoughts to their child as well. Here’s what we said:
Julia Paige – almost a year ago, your mother and I were sitting with several doctors who were helping us process the implications of some scary news we had received about you. We heard words like “complications” and “heart defect” and “Down Syndrome”. There were a lot of opinions as to what your life would look like – some were hopeful, others were quite a bit more bleak. After giving us all of the information they had, they waited for our response.
We had cried out to God many times as your story unfolded in the weeks previous. The people most important in our lives prayed with us and encouraged us as we sought out His will for you and our part in it. In the end, our response to those doctors was the deepest conviction that God had given us: We didn’t know how it was all going to come together, but we believed you were going to have a massive impact for Love on this world.
That conviction remains to this day. God has beautiful dreams for you and an adventure in this life that defies our wildest imagination.
We have seen some very hard days together in your young life, but even in the worst of it as we watched you come through your heart surgery during those dark days at the hospital, we saw that you had a fighting spirit that would not be denied. God brought you a cardiologist who prays over you in Hebrew and a heart surgeon who prayed with us the first day he met you. There are still dozens of people all over the world who are following your story and praying for you every day.
We have seen already your amazing ability to connect with people – the way you catch their gaze with your beautiful eyes. People see Jesus when they look at you. I am still sometimes overcome with the wonder of it all in the quiet of the evening as you sleep peacefully on my chest after your last bottle.
Your mom and I know that we are mere stewards that God has chosen to care for you for a season; and we are going to mess up – a lot. Nonetheless, it is our commitment to you and to the community assembled here today to do our very best to yield our hearts to Him and continue to let our hearts be changed and redeemed. And out of the overflow of those redeemed hearts, we want to be instruments of His love in your life, teaching you and growing you to find your fullest potential in Him.
Julia, this world needs you and your story so desperately; and our prayer is that you come to know Christ and continue to weave your story into His.
On this day, we dedicate you to that great adventure.