Sophie is dedicated

Babies, toddlers, proud grandparents and parents filled the first five rows of pews.
The screen behind the communion table flicked through a slide show of the children to be dedicated that morning. I snapped a shot of my granddaughter’s smiling face magnified on the screen for everyone to see. Taken just after her first haircut, she grins up at the photographer her blue eyes bright beneath her blonde bangs. Add her pixie grin to her most recent accomplishment — she can jump straight up with both feet off the ground – and I am really impressed.
Just when I think she is totally immersed in life from the viewpoint of a two-year-old, she surprises me with her intense awareness of the world around her. That morning she leaned over and grinned at me past her mom, dad and other grandparents. Her mischievous smile twinkled as I snapped shots of her and others who had gathered for the special service.
A child dedication ceremony serves as a time to recognize the importance of the spiritual input parents and friends play in a child’s life. My granddaughter had no clue why her parents carried her to go into the auditorium that morning. She did not know why we had gathered there that day. She busily studied all the people, the stained glass windows, listened to the hymns and watched the bustle of activity at the front.
“It has taken so long for us to have a dedication that I almost wanted to ask if we could dedicate the baby we are expecting,” the toddler’s mother mused before the service. While, the soon to be big sister determined long before the ultra-sound that her mother had a baby “brubber,” his dedication will still have to wait for the day he can show up in his Sunday best.
The dedication took place early in the service. Early enough to guarantee that the children would be rested and well fed before the prayer began. Early enough that the parents could then take their children to the child care workers for their Sunday School lessons and play time.
First, the pastor invited the parents and children to the front. The seven sets of parents, including one family with triplets, walked to the front for the dedication. After a few words, family and friends joined them to promise to pray and present the spiritual side of life to the children.
Then quickly and easily, after the prayer of dedication our two-year-old pixie slipped away to her classroom where her visiting three-year-old cousin had already settled down to play. The cousins had had a busy weekend before the dedication service. They spent half of Saturday exploring the Magic House where they found over sized musical instruments, a room of fairy tales come to life, bubbles big enough to encapsulate them, tiny kitchens just their size and a whole collection of light switches installed low enough for them to reach.
After a nap they explored the backyard, fantasized a jungle and checked out the lawn equipment. They watched in astonishment as the neighbor’s dogs ran wild on the first warm day of spring … and stayed up way too late because, someone, “kept pounding and pounding all night,” as the cousin reported. (The men were doing some minor, but overdue, house repairs.)
While they finished up their weekend together in the Sunday School room, we worshiped in the sunlit room. We found them sitting quietly at the table nibbling Graham crackers and drinking water.
Dropping crumbs like Hansel in the forest, they waved bye-bye to the teacher and prepared for lunch with the grandparents. Too soon the time came for us to say good-bye and head south once again, but we’ll find another reason to visit soon, I am sure.