A Year of Praise

It's pretty much official: I am the parent of a toddler. Well, technically, she won't be a toddler until Sunday, but the amount of protesting that is coming from her crib at the moment says otherwise.

In spite of that, I must say that I am completely enamored. She babbles, reaches for things, crinkles up her nose--all the normal things a one-year-old is expected to do, but just because she's my daughter, it's different somehow. And of course I expect it to be.

My constant prayer is that she be a vessel to bring God glory--that is, to be such a person that others can look at her and praise God. How is that done? It's impossible to say. But the Spirit in his wordlessness speaks louder than all the words that man could muster. So, as a parent, I naturally feel that soul connection when I look at my daughter, and in that spirit-tug that ties us, I offer up praise to my Father.

But I am most pleased during those times when we are out doing the mundane, like grocery shopping; it is then that I see all the smiles she can bring to people who are not related to her, to those who've never before seen or experienced her beauty. Gruff-looking, bearded men turn to sugar at her babbling. Tired-looking cashiers perk up when she waves hello. Little old ladies see her smile and remember their own babies, now grown--I see it in their eyes.

And when I see these strangers react to my little girl, I pray that she will always have these supernatural abilities--for that is what they are. In her innocence, she points people to the Most Innocent of all. In her babyhood, she is doing what we are all meant to do: She is bringing praise to the Father, being who she was created to be.

This Saturday we are throwing a small shindig to celebrate that. Birthday celebrations in America tend to be too much about the "gimme-gimme" and the "look at me, I'm special!", and I don't want my daughter to fall into that mindset. It's not about her. But...with every year that passes, if she can maintain the felicitousness she now embodies, that will indeed be something to celebrate. Praise to our Father for the beauty of his creation!