Remember Your Baptism

Today was such a powerful example of that intersection where faith meets life.  I’m still on a spiritual high because of how moved I was from our worship together this morning.  We did a Remember you Baptism service in which everyone had the chance to recall our profession of faith as well as remember the powerful work God did in and through us with the baptismal water of our original baptism.

So each person was invited to come forward and touch the water in the baptismal font.  What was so powerful for me was the privilege of pressing a yellow sea shell into each person’s wet hands and looking them in the eye and blessing them.  In a church where the back row and the back pew seems like a long ways away, it was wonderful to be able to connect with so many people today in such a personal way.

And one man shared with me that he was baptized 86 years ago!  Another older lady shared that she was 5 years old when she was baptized and she still remembered it.  One older gentleman pointed over my shoulder to the altar rail of the sanctuary and said he was baptized right over there.  So many people with tears in their eyes as they remembered what God had done in their lives so many years ago.

That beautiful intersection of the movement of the Holy Spirit surrounding those few seconds of holding the damp hands of each person and praying with them.  All that life has brought them- good and bad, years of struggle or moments of pure joy, family and friends that love, relationships that aren’t what we wish they would be, more questions then answers, or little people who have so much of their life to unfold before them, eyes that shed tears of joy, and eyes that shed tears of deep sorrow.  All of these moments wrapped up in the powerful act of worshipping and remembering- together.

My heart is indeed full.  I am both thankful for the grace that offers forgiveness and eternal life to me and you as well as for the high holy privilege of serving as pastor of a wonderful church.  Thank you for letting me be part of your lives.  It is a gift.  Today I am remembering and I am thankful.