ADEN JUDAH'S DEDICATION

I love how our pastor has chosen to do baby dedications at our church. He always puts a lot of thought into each one and makes it very personal for each baby. Aden was the only one being dedicated this past Sunday and I wanted to share a bit of what Pastor Wayne shared.

He always starts by giving examples of child dedication in Scripture -- Mary & Joseph bringing Jesus, Hannah brought Samuel to Eli, and the example of Jesus blessing the little children. In his words, "We believe that baptism is such an important step in the life of a believer and that is why we dedicate and not baptize our children. Believing that when children mature and accept the Lord as their personal Lord and Savior, they then should be baptized as a symbolic act of their love and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ."

The tradition at Calvary Chapel is to look at the meaning of the name of the child because in Scripture names frequently had meaning and spoke to the character of the individual. Pastor Wayne then finds verses that go along with the names and it is his prayer that these will become life long verses.

Aden is Irish and means "Fiery" or "Little Fire"

Judah is Jewish and means "praise" or "celebrated"

The Scripture that PW talked about was in Revelation 5 when John saw in the right hand of the One who sat on the throne a scroll that had seven seals. Then he saw a strong angel who proclaimed with a loud voice asking who was worthy to take the scroll and open the seven seals. No one could be found and so John wept because there was no one worthy. Then one of the elders said to John in verse 5, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."

Pastor Wayne's thoughts...

"As I thought about this and the meaning of the two names, the word that stood out to me was the word, "prevailed". Aden, fiery, suggested to me passion. Judah, praise, prevailing -- passionate in praise, prevailing were the thoughts that came to my mind. So putting that all together, my prayer for this little guy is that his life will be marked by passionate, prevailing praise. It is my prayer that at an early age Aden Judah will have a divine encounter with the Lord that will indeed set the course of his life to love and serve God with all his heart all the days of his life."

We also received flowers. A red carnation represents fatherhood and the bloodline; a white carnation representing motherhood -- virtue and character; and a budding rose represents a new life that is unfolding in fragrance and beauty to the world.

Unfortunately my photos from his dedication were all very blurry. But I hope this helps those of you who wish you could have been there to get a glimpse of his special day.