Six Months

My six month old Little Man is napping in his crib. He won't nap in your arms, doesn't like being held like a little baby, and log rolls out of snuggles first thing on a Saturday morning. Despite this resistance to being held like an infant, he is incredibly affectionate. He'll grab your face with both hands and pull you close to him. When he's sleepy, he'll throw an arm around your neck and bury his face in your shoulder. During playtime he wants kisses, and zurberts, and tickles galore. As long as you remember that he is a whole six months now, and not a baby anymore.

Oh my Little Man. You are forevermore my baby. When you take your first steps, I will beam with pride and bite my lip with nerves. When you go off to school, I will smile and wave with joy and fight back tears. When you have your first heartbreak, I will sing Dashboard songs for you. When you pick a career, find a job, a wife, have little ones of your own, I will laugh, love, help, guide, and try not to meddle.

And I will pray and worship.

I will worship because you are of infinite worth. Regardless of the choices you make or the paths you tread, the fact that you are made in the image of our Captain makes you endlessly valuable. On every journey you will carry the marks of our Maker. In every dark place you will have the opportunity to share in the Light. I will love you because you are mine, a blessing and a gift. I will love you, and by loving I will worship.

And I will pray. Because though you are forever my baby, the object of my motherly affection, a human being of incredible worth regardless of how you choose to live, I know you have free will. I will pray that you grow to be a man like your father and even more a man like your Father. I will pray that you live fearlessly and in the fear of the One who most loves you. I will pray that you are brave, truthful, and strong in a world of cowardice, lies, and weakness. Above all, I pray that you will know Him who is unknowable. That you will meet the God of the Ages in this brief moment of your life.

And I will pray that somehow I can be part of this amazing adventure on which you are headed. That somehow I can show you the best way to live in our humanity, and the best way to live for eternity.

Happy six month birthday my Little Man. You may think you are all grown up, but we both still have a lot of growing up to do.