Dearest darling Eden,

You have such a special name. No one is quite sure where it came from. Some very clever and learned people believe it stems from a word from the ancient language of Sumer and means ‘wilderness’. But other very clever and learned people think ‘Eden’ is related to the ancient language of the Hebrews and means ‘delight’.

Little Eden, you are now a very tiny bundle of a baby, but as you grow, like the rest of us, I suspect you will discover that inside your own little heart there will be both these things – both wilderness and delight.

This is a story for you, that I’m going to share with your mummy and daddy, your friends, family and godparents, and with your brand new church family. And I am hoping that, when you are old enough, you’ll be given this story to read for yourself.

Here goes:

Long, long ago – in a time before history books and in a place beyond the edge of maps was a garden, also called Eden.

Eden was a place of delight. It had flowers of every colour, trees that gave shade, rivers that refreshed. It had peaches, pears and plums. Tangy tomatoes, mouth-watering melons and champion cherries. It was filled with every kind of creature that God had made. Furry ones and feathered ones, scaly ones and slimy ones. And they were all friends! Lions cuddled up with lambs. Tigers gave piggy back rides to piggies. Foxes and chickens partnered up and danced the fox trot together.  

And in this garden of delight God placed a man and a woman – and here they were right at home. They would sing with the dawn chorus and laugh with the hyena. They would race with the jaguar (who sometimes would let them win) and then, hot and out of breath, they’d dive into the crystal waters of the river Euphrates and catch a ride on a smiling crocodile. Often on an early evening walk, they’d see God sitting under a lilac tree and they’d run to him, and tell him all the wonderful things they’d enjoyed that day, just like he was their best friend (because he was their best friend). And God was full of love for them and delighted that in this home he’d given them they too had found such delight.

It was heaven.

Until it wasn’t.

No one is quite sure why it went wrong. But despite the garden overflowing with gifts, both the man and woman wanted more. Or maybe they wanted less. I’m never sure. Because when they took off the tree the one fruit that God had told them was not theirs to eat, it was a complete act of self destruction – and then all that was good was then marred. Suddenly they found themselves a long way from that garden called Eden, and no matter how hard they tried they could not find their way home.

Now, little Eden, that was just the beginning of the story. I hope your parents and godparents will take the time to tell you the rest – the stories which follow in the bible, in which we see every man and woman and child, struggle to find their way home back to divine delight, back to the time when they raced to meet God rather than hid away from him in shame. But also in these stories you will hear of a God, who never stops loving and looking to bring them back. Until one day that God, in Jesus, steps into the world of time and maps, takes off the robe of heaven and puts on the clothes of the cross (arms) and says, here, in my love which is this wide, here, come, make your home in me.

And then, little Eden, one by one people started to discover, that the mysterious garden which seemed so very far off, was not so far away after all, but rather it could be found inside each one of their hearts. Their hearts which sometimes felt like such a wilderness, strange places of loneliness and longing, were the very place where God came to meet them, and walk beside them, just like he was their best friend (because he was) and said ‘my beloved child, however lost you may sometimes feel, you will never be far from home – because I have made my home in you’.

Little Eden, you are God’s delight. And today, as we welcome you into the family of the church through your baptism, you are also ours. And although you are so small, this morning you give us the biggest of gifts, the reminder, through your name, that although we may be a people who sometimes feel lost in the wilderness each one of us is also the delight of God – who wills only that we will grow to know and delight in him.

Thank you for this.

With love,

Susannah and your friends at St Peter’s