By Julia LaPlaca (Chapel Board Co-President & Art History PhD Student)
My attentiveness during sermons is not at an all-time high during this season of life. Frankie, my seven-month old, babbles and wiggles during services at the Campus Chapel and is only sometimes placated by a finger or corner of a book to gnaw.
However, one of the comforting takeaways I’ve had from our current series on the Fruits of the Spirit is that we do not produce love or peace or gentleness by our own great effort or attention. The Holy Spirit nurtures fruit in us much like rain and sun swell beefsteak tomatoes to delicious plumpness in late summer.
As a new parent, one of the greatest and surprising aspects of this season is watching the Holy Spirit work through Frankie’s little life already, specifically the way she inspires joy in us, of course, her parents, but also friends and strangers.
News Flash: people LOVE babies! Not revelatory, I know, but I’ve been shocked at how anywhere we go – grocery stores, airports, parks, Wednesday Night Dinners at the Chapel – people come up to say hello to Frankie or tell us her how cute she is or marvel at her little fingers or gush over her dimply smile and big blue eyes. Budding extrovert, Frankie grins right back with her two snaggly teeth. She smiles because that’s who she is, not because she wants to make an intentional first impression or out of any sense of guile. Without trying to and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, she sows joy wherever she goes.
And I do think the result is “joy” and not just fleeting happiness. After the compliments, I often hear a string of anecdotes about someone’s niece, nephew, children, or grandchild. Frankie’s babyness sparks joyful recollections about their once-small beloveds. This ritual usually ends with the old stand-by: “Well, enjoy! It goes so fast.”
Painfully and wondrously fast. Now, Frankie can punctuate these conversations with a wave goodbye (something she could not do last week). What an arresting and marvelous thing to witness another human learn to do the things we cannot remember learning. Maybe parents feel the urge to remember this brief stage, because we are remembering it for our children, saving up their stories before they can do it themselves.
During an infant baptism, the congregation is called to “remember” their own baptism. If they too were baptized as infants this is technically an impossible thing to do. But, in the weeks since Frankie’s baptism, I have been thinking about this invitation to remember as a call to reflect on the continuous work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life, long before they had words to articulate their own faith or a will to submit to God’s work. In the ritual of baptism, WE, all of us– for ourselves, for our children, and for each other– remember that it has always been the Holy Spirit who plucks us out of the deep and delights in the nurturing of good fruit in us
Even as I mourn how quickly my memory of one stage with Frankie fades as we move into the next, I savor the unique fruit of this season. I receive with gratitude the natural joy of her young life and marvel at how, through the power of the Holy Spirit, it breeds joy and joyful memories in the hearts of other people too.
Campus Chapel 