Recently, I had the honor of baptizing my oldest child, and I want to relate to you the view of the event through my eyes, and in doing so, to encourage you as I am encouraged. Our church had undergone a remodeling and had not yet received our new baptistery, so the baptism took place outside, in a galvanized trough. We made our way out to the trough immediately after the Sunday morning service. I lifted my daughter and set her down in the water. I looked around and saw the smiling faces of the church, my brothers and sisters, with whom I live day to day. I could see my children's Sunday school teachers, neighbors who had left work to take care of my other kids when we were in the emergency room with the baby, men who have helped me with various construction projects when I was in over my head, men I've prayed with, friends my wife and I have spent evenings playing games with while our kids played together out under the porch light. Sitting front and center were a group of kids, the children of our congregation. These are my kids' friends; among them were my daughter's first sleepover friend, my boys' best friends, and several others, children growing up in homes where the parents are working toward the same end as my wife and I, to bring our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Right in the middle of the kids, as though she were one of them, sat Annabelle, a dog, belonging to one of the church's neighbors, who is fond of our children, a mutual sentiment.
I looked out and was overwhelmed by the family that the Lord has given us. I charged them to pray for my children and to come alongside us as we raise them, making disciples of them. That being said, the baptism proceeded.
We are a little part of the body of Christ, the church, the body of those whose hope is in the Lord. We have come from every nation and and all tribes and peoples and tongues, to become a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. Pray for each other. Strengthen each other. "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ" (Ephesians 5:15-21).