Hannah is getting baptized this weekend.
It’s a big deal. In front of God and our community of believers, we will publicly promise what we’ve already promised many times in our hearts: to share Jesus with our daughter. To let her know that He is the reason for our hope. That He loves her more and better than we do. We promise and we point her to Him.
In reading our church’s pamphlet on the sacrament of baptism, I came across some language that I absolutely love. It’s a portion of the baptismal service of the French Reformed Church. The pastor says:
Little child, for you Jesus Christ came into the world, he did battle in the world, he suffered;
for you he went through the agony of Gethsemane and the darkness of Calvary;
for you he cried ‘It is finished’;
for you he triumphed over death
and rose in newness of life;
for you he ascended to reign at God’s right hand.
All this he did for you, little child, though you do not know it yet.
And so the word of Scripture is fulfilled:
“We love because God loved us first.”
I’m in my mid-30s, and I can substitute my name in for “little child” and “you,” and it anchors me again. Personalize it yourself.
It reminds me He’s the Initiator of this relationship. He loved me first.
It reminds me, as we approach Easter, that He went to the cross for me. And you. And Hannah.
Sarah Weller 