September 30

Beloved families of Good Shepherd,

Peace be with you! Many of our families are on fall break this week and some will begin fall break next week. I hope all our families are able to take some time to enjoy the beautiful fall weather together.

Jesus came into the world to give us joy and to help us know our our truest human identity, which is LOVE. Jesus’ life shows us that we have all been created by God in love for the sole purpose of love. God has joyfully longed each one of us into being even before we were born. Author Lacy Finn Borgo, in her book Spiritual Conversations with Children, says, “God has been longing for you, longing to connect with you, since before your very beginning. Every child you know has been longed by God into existence.”

I wonder if God’s longing for us and our longing for God is similar the mutual longing between an expectant mother and father and their baby. During my Montessori teacher training years ago, I remember learning that babies in utero can recognize their parents’ voices at 28 weeks of development. A baby also knows her mother’s unique heartbeat and smell early in her prenatal development. The parent-child longing and knowing of one another happens many months before the physical birth of the child.

St. Augustine, an early church father, wrote in his book Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” My sense is that God has hardwired us for connection with the Divine just as babies are created for connection with their parents. I wonder if God patiently waits for our eyes to find Him with delight at the time of our spiritual birth in the same way that God already sees us and adores us.

This past Sunday it was lovely to witness the Leslie family baby blessing during our 10 am service. This special blessing is located in our Book of Common Prayer (p. 440) and it is a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the safe delivery and gift of a new child. After many months of waiting, the Leslie family’s eyes finally met the eyes of their newborn son, Jack, and there was great joy and delight! If you have a baby and would like to receive a baby blessing from Fr. Hendree, please reach out to us.

We hope you will join us for worship this Sunday!

Many Blessings,

Patty