I became a Godmother yesterday for the second time.  I really love being a Godmother. When we were first asked to be Godparents a couple of years ago I was nervous. Since I am not a cradle Episcopalian, I wasn’t exactly sure what all I was supposed do. Would I mess something up being a Godmother? But we love our friends and we love their children, so we said “yes”. We stood up at our Goddaughter’s baptism and promised to love her and “do all in our power to support her in her life in Christ.” That and we gave her a stuffed lamb. As time went along I still wasn’t sure exactly what it meant to be a Godmother, but I did know one thing. I was crazy about my Goddaughter. I would hold her for a bit during coffee time at church or wave at her from the nursery door. Her mom is great at posting pictures of her kids on Instagram and every time I would see our little one I would smile and think, “That is my Goddaughter!” Even when the pictures showed her getting into something that probably had her mom at wits end I would just laugh and think what a great and funny kid she was.

It seems Goddaughters bring joy not because of what they do, but because they exist.

After two years of being a Godmother, I was thrilled to be asked to become a Godparent to our friend’s youngest daughter. No longer nervous, I soaked up every bit of her baptism with joy. I delighted in her big blue eyes as our priest prayed over the water, her look of surprise when the water hit her skin, and her calm curiosity when our priest put oil on her forehead and proclaimed her sealed by the Holy Spirit as God’s own forever. It was all so beautiful. There are a lot of things I love about how our church does baptisms but there is one things I love the most.

We name the child.

The parents and Godparents give the name the child is to be called, but there is another name. A name that God gives. Since our newest Goddaughter was baptized on Baptism of the Lord Sunday, the sermon was on the Scripture where Jesus was baptized by John. This is one of my all time favorite Scriptures, because in it God names Jesus at his baptism. Now a lot of people call us by different names in our lifetime. Our parents call us by our given name. Friends call us nicknames. Enemies call us mean names. And then there is what we call ourselves. In our class on managing anxiety we spend a whole week paying attention to all the different names we call ourselves. Too often these are bad names. Stupid. Clumsy. Failure. For some reason we call ourselves names worse than we would ever call anyone else. Terrible names. Hurtful names. That it is why it is so important to remember the name that God calls us.

Beloved.

You are my child, my beloved,

with whom I am well pleased.

-Mark 4:11

This is not just the name that God calls Jesus, it is the name that God calls us as well. If I did not know this before, I know it now. Now that I am a Godmother and am delighted by the very existence of my goddaughters no matter what they do or don’t do. Now that I am a parent myself and tell my children how much I love them each night, even when we have had a hard day together. Especially when we have had a hard day together. We are the beloved children of God. Even when we mess up. Even when we don’t believe we measure up. We are still called the Beloved, sealed by God’s grace forever. Nothing can change that. So if you need to remember how loved you are today, just because you were created in love and by LOVE, let me be your godmother for a minute and remind you. If you need to be reminded of this truth again and again, scroll up to the top of the blog and subscribe to the newsletter. When I send out the January newsletter again this Friday, you can get this free Scripture printable to have for your very own reminder. And remember no matter what happens or doesn’t happen today. You are beloved and a source of delight to God. Thanks be to God.]]>