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This Little Child from Far Away: A Prayer and a Song for the Baptisms of Adopted Children

by Philip de Haan
Issue #74

In the fall of 1996 my wife and I traveled to Korea to pick up our daughter Gina Soo. While we were there, friends from our church also got the call that their daughter Mia could be picked up. So on the day before we were scheduled to return to the United States, they arrived to pick up their little girl. A few weeks later both Gina and Mia were baptized together at First Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. To celebrate that event I wrote a prayer that all four of us did as a liturgical reading.

More recently my cousin adopted a baby girl from Korea and I wrote a song for her baptism. (The music was composed by John Witte, another member of our church.)

Prayer

Two daughters, Lord, presented here for
baptism,
brought from afar and claimed, made part
of our families,
baptized once by our tears of joy,
baptized today by your eternal seal,
even as we once were claimed and made
part of your covenant.

Your covenant, Lord: no Jew, no gentile, no
east, no west,
no distinctions of blood nor birth—
you simply say to all who will listen:
Follow me. Believe. Know that I am God.
We praise you for that gift. And we praise
you, God,
for these gifts of grace, these daughters.

We pray that they may grow strong and true,
servants of you.
And even as we pray for and praise you for
these two,
we remember the one, also sent by you,
the one who makes this seal possible,
your Child, Lord, your Son,
given to an undeserving world so that we
might all be
adopted as your covenant children.

Author

Philip de Haan

Philip de Haan (dehp@calvin.edu) is director of media relations for Calvin College and a member of First Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Baptism | Adoption |