merefaith: two friends on pilgrimage

This past weekend Christina and I, with the help of her parents, put together the baby crib for the imminent arrival of our first child. It is sitting next to our bed, the same crib that stood next to Christina's parents' bed, the same crib that stood next to Christina's father's parents' bed. Monday evening we finished doing the new baby laundry, sheets, bumpers, nighties, day outfits, socks, hats, and promptly set off to make the baby's bed. After it was all completed, baby blankets, bumpers and all, I stood back and looked. The baby still has about a month and a half before its birth day, but the presence of the crib, all ready for our soon to be new born child, made the reality of being a parent, the reality of having that child present so real it was present. I was overcome with a joy that swelled up from deep within myself, a love for this child that I have only thus far met in the kicks and hiccups from my wife's belly. (I also realized I will probably be a bawling baby when our baby is born :) Karl Rahner defines a mystery, sacrament, or symbol as "a reality that actualizes itself in its other in such a way that the other is constitutive of the reality's essence." At that moment I, in the rich symbol of our baby crib, passed down from generation to generation, experienced the first glimpses of fatherhood, of holding our baby for the first time, of seeing our baby walk for the first time, of seeing our baby off to school for the first time, of comforting our baby's hurts, of sharing our baby's joys. What a glorious thing it is to be a parent!

Posted by Craig Baker on Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at Wednesday, October 25, 2006 | Permalink