Yesterday, Tim, my seventeen-year-old son, led the worship band at our church, St. Thomas's, Lancaster. It was a good service, and the worship was good - songs appropriate to the theme (God's love), well played. Whilst worshipping, I recalled a time seventeen years earlier…
Sitting in the delivery room in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, holding a tiny bundle in my arms, whilst the midwives looked after Linda immediately after the delivery. There was a palpable sense of relief (our first son, Charlie, had been still-born, two years earlier), and joy. There was also a sense of wonder at the miracle of new life. And a sense of curiosity - wondering about the little bundle's future - just what would he become? And, naturally enough, I prayed for him at that point, that he'd grow up to be all that God wanted him to be.
Last summer, when Tim received the results of his GCSEs, we were, naturally, very pleased. But I said to him then that what actually matters to me most - way, way, ahead of exam results, is that he 'keeps the faith' - that he is a Christian, and that he works for God. Like all of us, he's a 'work in progress' - God still has much to do, I'm sure, in transforming Tim into a Christ-like person. But it's good to see him so far along the road at this stage in his life. When I was his age, I had barely begun to seek, and follow, God.
So, last night was, in some ways, a beginning - beginning to see what God has done, so far, in a young life. It's also a sort of 'end result' - beginning to see, in some measure, the result of that prayer, and all the prayers since. I am grateful to God for his faithfulness in helping us raise Tim (and Anna!). I'm also grateful to God for all those people who have been an influence on him, from his nursery and school teachers, through to all the 'volunteers' - junior church teachers, youth leaders (like Ian McGrath) - and their influence on his life and faith.