I may be a little bit of a Star Wars fan. There may or may not have been a song from Episode 4 played as the recessional song at my wedding. But I won’t tell. I may have named my son after Luke Skywalker. Ok, I didn’t really – it was for St. Luke the Evangelist – but it is nice that it fits for multiple purposes.

So, I’ve got my Luke. Had to wait until my fifth child, and many years longer than I expected, but I’ve got my Luke. And with him comes all sorts of Star Wars presents and anecdotes. We call him LJ for “Little Jedi.” He’s been given a Luke action figure, a lightsabre, and stuffed Yodas. Luke’s Godfather, Adam, gave me one of those “easy” button things – except this one says 2 things – “I am your father,” (of course) and “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side.” Fitting that he gave it to me for Luke’s Baptism, I suppose.

Because, that’s true – I don’t know the power of the dark side – and neither does Luke. But that’s part of why we had Luke Baptised – to protect Luke, to have him embraced by the Catholic Family – both the local & immediate Catholic family, along with the universal Catholic Family.

Luke’s my fifth child, so I’m not going in blind anymore. I have a clue. Maybe. A little one. But there are so many things that I’m worred about. So much that we want to protect him from – and so much we want to strengthen him with and for. We want Luke to grow up and to – maybe not be a Jedi – but to be a God’s warrior. This is step one. (Unless you count all the prayers for him before he was born, since he was born, etc.) This is the first official step towards allowing Luke to be claimed by God. The first step towards giving Luke the courage to follow the call Christ has for him.

We don’t know the power of the dark side. It’s strong – scary strong. But now Luke has almost a billion family members world-wide who are on his side – and that’s pretty darn strong also. Luke has been claimed by Christ through his Baptism – and there’s no going back.

My boy, who I’m already proud of, will have lots of struggles in life. He will (already does) cause us sleepless nights. He will fail, he will fall short, he will stumble. But he will get up, as Christ did while carrying His cross, and Luke will continue on the road that Christ has planned for him. This is my hope & prayer.

Even if those plans Christ has for Luke break my heart and don’t fit with my plans. Luke isn’t just my son anymore – Luke is God’s son. And God’s a better Father than me. Pray for Luke as God’s child, and please, pray for me as Luke’s father – to be able to teach him the ways of the, um, faithful Catholics.