This morning I
lost all control of my emotions. My mascara, along with all the tears I had, was
streaming down my face and I wondered why I even bother with make-up on Sundays.
There was this lump in my throat that was dying to come up but I kept telling
myself to hold it together.
No one died. A
boy didn’t break my heart. I didn’t watch Titanic. No one made fun of me and I
didn’t lose my job.
I witnessed a
baptism.
Actually, I
witnessed dozens upon dozens of baptisms. I’m always a mess at baptisms though. As soon as
a person hits the water, I just can’t keep cool. It’s like
something rises up in my spirit and I make a connection with the Father’s heart
and all I can do is bawl my eyes out.
This morning the
pastor gave a pretty good message about keeping our minds on the eternal while
living day-to-day in the present. He brought it around to Jesus and choosing to
follow Him. He extended the invitation that if anyone wanted to give their
lives to Jesus today, they could. And then if they were really serious, they
could be baptized.
The teenage girl
sitting in front of me springs to her feet and at the same time her mom bursts
into tears. She walks down to the baptism area escorted by her now hysterical
mom. Teenage girl gets into the water and the pastor asks, “do you accept Jesus
as your savior and commit to follow Him all the days of your life?” She
responds assuredly and as she goes under water, her father who is sitting
directly in front of me starts weeping. And I mean weeping.
What a holy
moment I just encountered.
I don’t know how
far from God Teenage girl was or how many endless prayers her parents have
prayed. But in that moment I saw those prayers answered. I saw joy so overflowing that words weren’t
enough. I saw a glimpse of heaven. And then I saw more and more and more people
come down to make the same decision. Yes, I was still crying non-stop, in case
you were wondering.
I think baptism
is such a beautiful picture of redemption. You go down into the water dried up,
full of sin and separation. Then you get immersed into cleansing waters and the
blood of Jesus that takes on all your weight and filth and death. That old
person dies away and you come up out of the water a new creation. A
new creation that is dripping with the Holy Spirit. A new
creation that gets access to the loving God who created the world. Your Father.
I can see the Father looking down at this
morning’s events, and He begins weeping like Teenage girl’s dad did in his
chair this morning. There aren’t words to describe His joy when a son or
daughter returns to Him, choosing to say yes to His love. I love that.
