Henry's Baptism

We've discovered one of the joys of having a child who has yet to be able to verbalize his clothing desires and choices (aside from some disagreements when getting dressed/undressed) is that we can put him in whatever we want, including little bitty tuxedo t-shirts.  One Sunday during the summer, Henry was dressed in such a shirt (classic black with the red carnation) while at church the discussion of his baptism came up.  Paul and his dad agreed that it would be really neat if Henry was baptized in a tuxedo shirt and the pastor said he'd never baptized a baby wearing a tuxedo t-shirt before (not the encouragement that was needed for Paul).

Fast forward a couple of months to Henry's baptism.  I'd found a couple of sweet little outfits I thought would be perfect for Henry to wear (one a cream sweater knit one-piece romper, another a sweet smocked overalls outfit).  Paul was still holding out for the tuxedo t-shirt but I thought it was a bit irreverent for the solemnity of the event.  Finally, I found an outfit that I could agree to and a tuxedo top that was little classier than the cheese-tastic black shirt.

On Sunday November 21, Henry was baptized during one of the morning church services.  We'd arranged the date back in September and I asked the pastor several times if there was anything we needed to do to prepare.  It just seemed like we should do *something* prior.  He reassured us several times that because we were regular church-goers, he wasn't too worried about us not knowing what we were agreeing to during the service.  I did have a pre-baptism dream a week prior--one of those wacky panicky dreams that often happen before a big event in which when we got to church, no one knew who we were or why we were there.  Dream Henry was properly baptized but only after much pleading by his dream parents (again, reassured by the pastor that they knew who we were and why we were there).

For several Sundays prior, our pastor (Craig) had been wooing Henry--standing near him, chatting with him.  On the 14th, I offered to let Craig hold Henry who generally will go to anyone.  Craig wears a short beard and Henry was absolutely fascinated with it.  I'm not sure who was having more fun--Craig, Henry, or the bystanders--as Henry was rubbing his forehead on Craig's beard and patting it.  It was amusing to watch and gave us hope the next week would go off without a screaming infant.  Thankfully I was correct.


Henry was fidgety during the readings but once Craig took him and Henry saw the beard, he was fine.  I didn't see it but apparently Henry gave quite the look to the associate pastor who was holding the bowl of water.  Craig took Henry down the aisle to show him off to everyone as the congregation sang Jesus Loves Me.  As I was taking Henry back at the end of the baptism, Craig told everyone how fidgety Henry had been and that he doubted Henry would make it through the sermon (he was right).

Paul and I were so touched by the baptism service.  In addition to the baptism service typically done, Craig added a nice little homily about the importance of celebrating baptism, how different faiths approach it (a nod to my Baptist upbringing I believe) and why the Methodist church does baptism as we do.  (Please don't ask me to repeat what he actually said though--while I was there and heard the entire thing and was trying to listen and take it all in, nerves meant the retention wasn't what it might have been).  As we were discussing it afterward with our parents, both Paul and I said it seemed that Craig did more than usual--maybe it was because it was our first time to be involved as more than congregant.