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So yesterday was Caroline's day to be baptized. We were very excited. We had her in her beautiful white dress and new shoes. However, right before we get up on the platform to have her baptized we sing a hymn, accompanied by our very large very loud organ. It was so loud she started crying really hard. I was hoping when the music stopped she would stop crying, but no such luck.
My little happy cheerful girl who rarely cries, bawled her eyes out non-stop the entire ceremony, which the pastor tried to get through as quickly as possible. At first of course I had the feeling of being horrified that my child was "messing up" the ceremony. And then as I was standing there the verse from Romans 9 popped into my head. "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." It occurred to me that Caroline's freaked out crying was a much truer picture of how we come to God.
We think we should come in our Sunday best all cleaned up, happy and confident. That's bull. That's not how we come to God. We come scared, confused and overwhelmed. We come bawling our eyes out. We come because we are carried by His grace onto the platform of promise to receive the sign of His Spirit. We are just like Caroline and not a bit different. And when, Lord willing she is able to understand about God's love and His provision for us, and she confesses the belief He has granted, I will tell her what she taught me on March 18th, 2012. "Out of the mouth of babes...."
