Coming of Age

The baby is now a lady! This statement brings with it the excitement, the joy and the merriment of coming of age from being a girl to becoming a woman. In the Philippines, we call this celebration as "debut". When a young lady turns 18, the parents usually offer a special celebration for their former little girl. The celebration varies. With those who can afford an elaborate party, they usually have elegant celebrations in the hotels. Others, do the celebration in their own house, usually outside the house for bigger and open space. But still others, didn't have the chance to do this kind of celebration for different reasons.

As a young adult working with young people, I had many opportunities to witness the coming of age of our youth in the church and at times  among the christian community here in Davao City. I could not count how many times I have been to debut parties. Sometimes, I came as an escort of the debutante, many times I was included in the list of their 18 roses. But lately, I didn't get those kind of roles anymore. Instead I would always be asked to be the host. Although being a host of a party can be challenging, I found myself enjoying it. I like the privilege of thinking creatively on how to make the celebration a meaningful and special one not just for the debutant but for everyone.

The last celebration I hosted was last saturday night. It was the debut of one of our youth in the church held at rancher's grill. It wasn't really an elaborate celebration but a simple and heartfelt one. The parents sincerely intended the celebration to be a "passage to womanhood ceremony" where the debutante's parents released her to womanhood with blessings and prayers. The celebration was centered on God. God was the star of the party because of the different testimonies on how God used the debutante to touch the lives of her friends. The debutant herself concluded the party by sharing her Bible reading for that day. It was so interesting because the original plan was to end with "party dancing" but it end up with praising to the Lord.

Indeed it was a celebration of life, love and God. The coming of age does not only pertains to the numbers but to the number of years of God's faithfulness of making life's existence meaningful and filled with purpose.