Child present and accounted for

The Catholic Church is celebrating the Presentation of Mary today because back in the day some research showed it must be true that Mary, God’s baby momma, had religious parents who led her through the ritual knowing...afterall, Mary ended up saying “yes” to birth Jesus. Regardless what you think of Catholics or Mary or the relationship between the two there is something to be said about taking one of your own to the altar. Sacrificing livestock was a tithe they made in the Old Testament for various reasons and holidays. For parents, a presentation is the sacrifice of themselves. No matter how tradition or religion does it, Bible believing churches have a presentation ceremony Catholics call “baptism.” Some are sprinkled while others are dunked. Participants can be infants or adults. Whatever you follow isn’t the heart of the matter. What is absolutely amazing and wonderful is I have faith filled parents who chose to put God first and present me to the church as an infant. It wasn’t for them or the church. It was a moment of grace for me, a gift my parents gave me believing God would accept my itty bitty thumb–sucking self at the time into His Kingdom. Like the parents of Jesus, they went along with tradition and put me through each sacramental ceremony to instill again and again God was going to reign over this family. No one will know how God does such wonders in creating a foundation in such rituals. The only ingredient needed in this “magic spell” is belief. As a parent, if you truly believe God is going to care for your family you are going to humbly present your children to Him. God gladly accepts all who come to the altar. Allowing him to take over from there is another issue. Eventually I had to go to the altar myself to make that commitment. The last time I did that it was my own son who led the way by going months before me. Sure, I faithfully made a celebration of his presentation when I asked the local priest to sprinkle him just weeks after my son left my womb in 1997. I followed all the traditions my parents did for me for him. Putting God first in my family let to an amazing summer day in 2010 when my son began begging me to let him participate in our interdenominational church’s water baptism. Honestly at first I thought he just wanted to be dunked in the Gulf of Mexico because it looked cool and fun. Then they announced the date of September’s monthly Spirit douse would be on my son’s birthday. Obviously this was confirmation. Joy-filled smiles on his face in every photo we took that day proved that God will radiate out from within. We don’t know how it happens but we can believe children who walk in this light must have connected with the seeds that were planted by the people they met on their journey, some starting with their parents. So if the Catholics have an out of Biblical idea Mary had done to her what she did for God and Jesus, I’m not going to debate it. Instead I’m going to use their argument to think of my own life and responsibilities as a Christian parent. Is God really first, my son second and then me? Hopefully so because that is the only recipe for peaceful parenting. Each time I present my son’s issues to God and not try to run my child’s life to what I believe he needs, I get struggle free miraculous solutions. The power of grace is real. No matter how you receive it, if you believe it and confess it then it’s alive in you.