Why Dedicate the Dutcher?
Here’s a portion of what we sent to our extended family, inviting them to Dutch’s baby dedication (which will take place this Sunday morning):
Why Dedicate the Dutcher?
We wanted to share with you, our family, why we do what we do. It may seem that a baby dedication is merely a religious ritual, a tradition to follow. In some ways, it is. We see the value of traditions that celebrate and affirm Dutch. We want him to know that he is valued, loved, and celebrated. We will spend our lives affirming him and this is a first step. But, this is really the secondary reason we are having him dedicated. Primarily, we dedicate Dutch to God because it is a symbol of what we aim to do with him in life, recognizing that Dutch belongs to God. We will spend our life helping him become the man that God desires Him to be.
In the Bible, Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to the temple to be presented to God, signifying, by their actions, that He belonged to God and was His, not theirs. Hannah did the same thing with her son, Samuel (1 Samuel 1-2:11). She prayed for a child, and when Samuel was born she dedicated him to God’s work. In her case, this meant she only got to see her son once a year once he was older! Though it must have been so hard for her, she was willing to let him go because she’d dedicated him to God at birth. We dedicate Dutch because we want to recognize he is His.
So why are we inviting our family? We obviously could dedicate Dutch privately, in our own home even, and it would be no less “real.” But we want to share this dedication with you, because you are all part of raising Dutch. You all will influence, shape, and mold his life in different ways. You influence our lives as well, by your prayers, words, encouragement, and advice. We aren’t raising Dutch alone—you all are part of this process. We need you. And we are asking you, as our family, to stand with us and help us, pray for us, encourage us, and remind us, when things are hard, that Dutch belongs to God.
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