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God's Glorious Mercy Shows Itself

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Faith on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:00 AM

Our first godchild is my sister’s son. His baptism was a joyous occasion, and I was proud to be there. I can’t think of that baptism without smiling.

This weekend we acquired our second godchild. His baptism was also a joyous occasion, and I was proud to be there. And I can’t think of this baptism without nearly bursting into tears because God is so merciful and good.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a close friend whom I met online. Lauren found the archives of my personal blog when she and her husband were having fertility struggles. She emailed me, and we hit it off. Since she happens to live in an area to which we travel fairly frequently, the next time I was there we picked a restaurant and met for brunch. Since then I don’t think there’s been a week when the two of us haven’t talked on the phone. Our husbands get on famously as well, and our families have even vacationed together twice.

As the months passed, the one bittersweet thing was that God kept blessing us with children, while Lauren and David continued waiting.

Then this past Advent I suggested they pray the Christmas novena for their intention, and I prayed with them. (I wrote about that here.) I think we were all shocked by the quickness of the results: on January 14th, our friends called to tell us they were expecting. After more than three years, it was their first-ever pregnancy.

After a blessedly healthy gestation, their son was born October 6th. He was baptised this past Saturday. Lauren and David asked us to be the godparents, and we happily flew down for the occasion.

I love the rite of baptism. The part at the beginning when the priest says to the baby, “I claim you for Christ,” always makes me choke up, and I’m extremely touched by the beauty and meaning of the rest of the ceremony too. It’s the cleansing and rebirth of a brand-new soul! What’s not to love?

Through baby Nathanael’s baptism this weekend, I held it together pretty well. But the end of the rite includes a blessing of the parents. It starts with the mother, and as Lauren stepped forward and the priest extended his hand over her head, I saw the road she’d traveled to get to this point. I thought of the way she prayed and hoped for a baby while asking God to help her submit her will to his. The priest prayed that God would bless her in her vocation as a mother, and in the tilt of her head I could see the way her past moments of pain and of obedience had shaped her to stand so beautifully and gratefully in this moment of pure joy.

I cried, and as my friend turned around afterward I saw that her face matched my own.

During our own two-and-a-half year initial wait for a baby, I wondered often what would be the good that God brought out of our trial. The goods have turned out to be numerous and far-reaching, and highest among them I count the fact that our experience and my blogging of it brought us our friends, and gave us the chance to be witnesses to God’s miraculous work in their lives. I have now seen in glorious living color the way that God calls us to be molded by his will for us, if we will only allow him to do it.

From the moment I heard about my new godson’s existence I knew that I wouldn’t make it through his baptism without crying. I’m glad I was right. Having the chance to weep those joyful tears was one of the biggest privileges of my adult life.

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