Let’s pretend that you are a young lieutenant, part of the military, and part of the Presidential Honor Guard!
Every day the President walks into his office, and you snap to attention, click your heals and salute the President. The President nods. Every day, this same procedure occurs.
The President walks in, you snap to attention, click your heals and salute. The relationship is stiff, formal, technical, with your eyes never looking the President in the eye, but your eyes are always straight ahead, frozen like a stiff wooden soldier.
But one day, the President stops in front of you, the young lieutenant, and says to you. “Please follow me into my office.” You do so and the door is closed. The President orders you to be seated and then looks you in the eye.
The President says to you, “I want you to become one of my children. I want you to become part of our family. I want you to come to our family outings, our family picnics, the family birthday parties, the family Christmases. I want you to become part of our family.”
What a moment! What a miracle! And in that moment, the relationship between the President and you as the young lieutenant is totally transformed. The relationship is no longer formal, stiff, distant and legal but is now close and loving.
That is precisely what happens to us on our baptismal day. It is God who takes the initiative. The relationship between us and God is totally transformed. Baptism is the fantastic invitation from God to know us intimately and closely, so closely that we are now called his son or his daughter. At our baptism, we become part of God’s family!!
Thanks to Edward F. Markquart for sharing this. Thanks to Tim Bish for the photo.
On December 26th, the day after Christmas, I spent a good part of my day reflecting on this story. On December 26, 1943, two days short of being just a month old, I was baptized! WOW! WOW! WOW! 80 years ago!! The most life-changing event in my life happened that day, and I probably slept through it, or cried, or maybe soiled my diaper.
As an 80-year old now, I spent most of December 26th reflecting on how over the years I often slept while the Holy Spirit was calling out to me. I reflected on all the complaining and crying I’ve done so often over the years. And I did a good bit of chuckling on December 26th. At 80 I’m back again to diapers at times to stay dry! I’ve gone full circle. My life today is now a lot like the Two-Minute Warning at the end of all the football games. I don’t have much time left to leave this life a winner!
Do YOU ever reflect on the day of YOUR Baptism? Does YOUR Baptism invite YOU to hear God’s words to YOU: “I want YOU to become one of my children. I want YOU to become part of our family. I want You to come to our family outings, our family picnics, the family birthday parties, the family Christmases. I want YOU to become part of our family”?
DEAR JESUS, I AM IN AWE OF THE WAY YOU PURSUE ME. I GIVE MY FEARS OVER TO YOU TODAY. DRIVE THEM OUT WITH YOUR PERFECT LOVE!
A story today to think about and to share: TreatsfortheSoul.org.
