dedication.

last month, we had the privilege of dedicating lauren and jonah at our church.  this was something i had been wanting to do for lauren but the timing never seemed to work out.  and then jonah joined our family.  and then we thought we would be moving away.  but then the Lord led us back and everything fell into place as is always the case when it's God's timing and not ours.

the sunday we picked to do the child dedication also happened to be grandparents' day at church.

that weekend also happened to be the one time my parents would be staying over at our place since they had a wedding to go to on saturday night.  they haven't been able to come for an overnight visit since last spring due to their work schedule.

so God perfectly orchestrated all these events so that it would work out for my parents to come to church with us on that particular sunday, feel especially welcome since there were many other grandparents also there, get to see lauren and jonah's dedication, and most importantly, hear the gospel message that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

my dad is not a believer.

i'm thankful that i was able to share a little with him the night before we went to church and that he was there listening to the message at church, too.  now i'm just praying that God would allow those planted seeds to take root and grow into saving faith for my dad.

for my dad to be saved would be huge.  words simply cannot express what that would mean to me.

i asked my dad to take a few pictures for us while we were up there.  he took two.  this was the better of the two.  heh heh.  thanks, dad.  ;)

the kids love whenever the grandparents are able to come visit.  they were especially excited that they were able to come to church with us this time, too!

a picture of the kids is projected up on the screen during the child dedication and i was hoping my dad would get a shot of it.  he didn't (he said he didn't want to be too disruptive during the service), so here is the picture that was shown.

in any case, it was a wonderful sunday in which we got to commit ourselves to raising up our children in the Lord, to pray over their salvation, and where their grandparents were also able to be there with us.  it was truly a God ordained "coincidence" and a special time that we all got to be together.