Baptized

Baptism. I have seen infants sprinkled in both Catholic and Protestant churches. I have seen believer's baptism from Baptists, Methodists, Church of Christ, Christian Church, Non-Denominational, Spirit-filled, Assembly of God, and Neo-Charismatic. I myself was sprinkled at 12, and then convinced to be baptized by immersion at 22. But I have never been a part of a baptism as cool as the one last night.

My friends' son wanted to be baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ. In my church we believe in baptizing by immersion. Actually, immersion is not the best word: whelm is, and so that obviously affects how we do it. People started showing up around 6:00 pm on that hot (95°) Texas May 24 at the neighborhood clubhouse. There were two families of church members, two families from another church that we used to be a part of (one is on staff there), and two neighbor families not active in any church, except their kids always hang out and play with our kids (if I get to count that as being actively involved with a church - and I do). We moved the chairs around the swimming pool so that the adults could sit comfortably while the kids sat on the edge of the pool and got their feet wet. My friends took Samuel down into the water, and after a prayer, shared some things about his natural birth, 7 years ago.

Samuel was born premature by 3 months. He had all kinds of health problems and was expected to either die or have severe health problems his whole life. They shared some of that story and some of the interactions with faithful and faithless people in all that. This guy is today a little dynamo. Completely healthy and strong and active, and an amazing tough and tender follower of Jesus Christ. And he was chomping at the bit to be baptized. After reading several of their journal entries from their months in intensive care at the hospital, they also shared part of their own story - how Samuel's life as a baby had birthed a renaissance of faith in Christ for them. They also shared with us a little of the story of Samuel the prophet in the Bible, who Sam was named after. Then Samuel confessed Jesus Christ and was baptized by his dad.

We all reflected on what we were witnessing as his big sister kicked off a couple of songs on the CD player, and then...party time! Shirts flew off, floats came out, and splash happened. We broke into some fudge bars, ice cream sandwiches, a couple of tubs of ice cream (the peppermint was particularly good - hey, I wonder if there's any left over in the freezer?), soft drinks, grapes, and cookies. And what fellowship we had. All 13 kids had a great time playing games and having a belly flop contest while the adults got to know each other and chatted about everything from the trivial to the sublime. Some of the other neighbors showed up just to swim, and we made room for them, too. Around 8:30, everybody had left, and I locked up. I didn't come down from that cloud all night. I woke up the next morning still smiling.

Now that's what I call a baptism! Did I mention this was the first baptism in our new church?

The very first followers of Jesus were called The Way, and it is said of them, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

May it be.