Monday, August 28, 2006

The laugh that struck home

Yesterday I baptized the 3 month old daughter of a young couple in our church, who happen to be good friends of ours, whom I also married.

(Pulleeez..... no discussion on this blog from Reformed or Baptist Reformed or Baptist or Emerging or Pomos or Catholics or anyone else about whether child baptism is Biblical or not. My philosophy is: if I gave a New Testament to my nonbelieving neighbor and he wanted to obey it, he would sooner speak in tongues, prophesy and heal people than he would baptize children. I do it because it is my tradition and I think there are some good reasons to do it, but I hardly want to spend a minute 'defending' it.)

Anyway, just after I baptized her she flashed me one of those big smiles that only a 3 month old baby can give you. It was intentional, it was directed at me, and it broke my heart.

I thought of all I had missed and miss with my kids and my grandson because of distance.

And I thought of God's grace, totally unearned, being now poured out on this child and the world.
It was a moment that shook me to the core.

Neat that that can happen in a church service.

Thank you Famke!

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