One of my godchildren turned eighteen recently and this evening we celebrated her birthday in the garden of her house in a tiny Brabant Wallon village much as we have done every year for the past eighteen years. We are blessed to have quite a few godchildren. In a sense, they are like grandchildren – the godparents are there to spoil them! But, of course, that’s only part of the role. Basically, we are there for when we are needed. It’s a privileged position of trust and of responsibility and also, as this evening, of constant company. Much has changed over the past eighteen years, but sitting in that Brabant Wallon village garden this evening I realised that much – friendships, family – has also, happily, remained the same.
I very much enjoyed reading your description of what it means to be a Godparent, it is exactly how I think of and feel about it as well. I have recently become a Godmother myself. And maybe this past weekend was for Godchildren: I spent it with my Goddaughter of only 10 months in Brabant Wallon…:-). I hope to get to celebrate her 18 yrs and also to feel that friendship and family don’t alter.