Godparents, Hand Picked by God

The other day my daughter asked me how we chose her Godparents. 

   I knew what answer she was expecting, because her Godparents are some of our oldest and best friends. Ones who have been there through thick and thin, good times and bad, when we were getting along just fine, and when we didn't get along all that particularly well.

She was surprised by my answer.

   Because we didn't pick her Godparents on account of their being our best friends. We picked them because God chose them. In our household God has a pretty big voice. I think I've mentioned before that he does a lot of shouting to get himself heard.

Well, we can be pretty thick.

In this case, he was shouting pretty loud.

   You see, at the time when most parents were thinking of having their kids baptized, we weren't thinking about it at all. Why would we? We didn't go to church. We didn't see ourselves as belonging to any particular church affiliation. My husband had been raised Catholic, but was not practicing, I had been baptized Catholic, but had not received any of my other sacraments, so it wasn't really on our radar.

God had other ideas.

   First Grandpa asked if we had made any plans. He said if we liked, he could baptize her. He was a deacon in the Catholic Church after all.

 Ummm... okay. 

   Then one day our best friends (you know those friends that we have known FOREVER and been friends with through thick and thin, etc, etc, etc.) came over for dinner and they brought us a present. A BAPTISMAL GOWN. A really, really, really, pretty, but really, really, really, LONG baptismal gown. And they told us they would love to be Godparents.

You know, just in case we were thinking about having her baptized.

No pressure, right?

   When we asked where exactly we were supposed to get her baptized (remember, we didn't go to church and didn't exactly belong to any church affiliation) they suggested their church, or maybe the church Jeremy grew up in, you know, the Catholic Church.

Where have I heard that before? Oh wait, wasn't Jeremy's dad a Catholic Deacon? Yes, that's correct, he was. And he offered to baptize her.

   We were asked not once, not twice, but several times by our aforementioned friends (as well as numerous family members) and finally, we got the message! So on 4/4/04 (That was Palm Sunday, yep, I'm not good with dates, so God picked one I could remember) our daughter was baptized. By her grandfather, with our best friends as her Godparents.

She cried the entire time.

Those were tears of happiness, right?

   There is photo proof.

   As well as a certificate.

   And the continued presence of her Godparents, who still remind me from time to time that should anything happen to us, they will make sure that she still is able to go to church weekly and practice her faith.

Because they are good Godparents!

God doesn't give any other kind!

   And I'm grateful that they were brave enough to make it happen. Thanks Guys!