The First Copy of Washed Clean

​God’s timing and providence always continue to amaze me. When I am caught in the day-to-day busyness of raising three children, I seem to forget He has a plan and is actively working in my life. But every so often, He comes along and “whack!” hits me right across the face with a not-so-subtle loving reminder He is there…

Embarrassingly, it has been almost a year since my last blog post for Joyful Little Catholics and honestly, there is no good excuse other than I chose to do other things with my time, some of which were productive, others weren’t. But now, I can’t help but start back up and share all the good news that we have going on and how God is working.

Over two years ago, while still caught up in the whirlwind of beginning our journey of Joyful Little Catholics before even publishing our first book, I was sitting in the church praying. I believe at the time, I was waiting in a long line for Reconciliation when a simple line of rhyme popped in my head. At the time, it seemed like I might be able to do something with it, so I pulled out my phone and jotted down a quick note. Little did I know that that verse would someday lead to right here and now.

“Baptism is so much more than a sign, God says you’re clean, you’re free and you’re mine.” This simple verse stayed tucked away in my phone for quite some time. I would occasionally stumble upon it as a reminder, but that was about it. Then, one day, while I had one of the faint glimpses of free time that we experience as parents, I felt inspired to pull out my sketchbook and do something with that line. Suddenly the ideas and words began to flow, and what resulted was the first draft of what is now our newest book, Washed Clean. For quite some time that draft sat collecting dust until we had published our second book, and then finally I began the true process of making it into a book.

Looking back, I can say each step to this point has been guided by God; the inspiration of a simple verse, the impulse to turn that verse into something so much more, the encouragement to take that draft and make it into a reality, and finally… the waiting. It seems with each book I have published; God gives me a time of waiting leading up to the book finally being printed. He then rewards that time of waiting with some glimpse of His love and grace. It is almost as if He is sending me through a sort of Lent. This time around was no different.

This year, everything seems to be slowed down due to supply chain issues, and book printing was no exception. I had finished designing Washed Clean back in October of 2021 and sent it off to the printer. I was promptly given a response that kindly told me it would take at least 5 months to print, compared to the typical 6-8 weeks. Thus began the newest season of waiting with which God had blessed me. At the time, I figured it was simply a time of waiting just for the sake of patience, but little did I know, God had something even more awesome in store.

My wife and I just celebrated our ninth anniversary. By now, many of our friends and family members have had children, including us, but in all this time, one blessing had seemed to allude us…we were never asked to be godparents. Now, it may seem like an insignificant thing, but our faith is very important to us, and we hoped someday to have the opportunity to help encourage the faith of a godchild. Despite that desire, it seemed God might have other plans. In fact, just a few months ago we were joking about that very topic. Then, one night after a small group meeting, one of our friends stuck around after everyone left to ask us a question. As you may have guessed, he asked us to be the godparents for their newly born daughter. Then, he told us the baptism date, March 6. I thought little of it, but later that week, I was going through my business emails and happened to notice something. The estimated date for our books to ship was March 4.

All along God had a plan, He wanted this book written to bless families and show the beauty of the sacrament of baptism. He decided to bless our trust in Him with the opportunity to be a godparent to someone special in our lives. However, God wasn’t done there! God can never be outdone in generosity and a week later another couple, who are very close friends, asked us to be the godparents to their daughter too. When it rains it pours, and God was raining down graces in abundance.

A month went by, and the baptisms were just around the corner. It had been close to 5 months since I heard anything from the book printers. I began to think that maybe this was not all part of God’s plan. I reached out to the printer and got a short polite answer that things seemed to be on track, and they would be in touch closer to the estimated ship date.

That brings us to this week. Going into Wednesday I still had heard nothing. I began to resign myself to not being able to give our first godchild a copy of our new book as a baptism present. Then midday, the email came, and by 11:00 AM on Thursday the very first (and currently only) copy of our book was on our front porch. God is good. He took care of every detail down to the day. So…God planned this first book for a special person, our first godchild, and I hope it is as much of a blessing to her as it has been to us.

Interested in placing an order for our newest book? Click here. Book orders will go live the week of March 7, 2022, after pre-orders have been fulfilled.