And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

My daughter, aged 6, is preparing to be baptized.  In our church, any child wanting to be baptized must be "interviewed" by a member of the church staff to ensure that he or she truly trusts in Jesus and understands the public stance they are taking.

All this is fine except that my daughter, S., has never been "interviewed" before, much less by a stranger, about such a topic.  Needless to say, the interview was a bit stressful (for S. AND me!)  I sat there as she clammed up or frequently said, "I don't know," to basic questions like, "Who is Jesus?" and "What is sin?"  Come to think of it, these questions -- while basic on one level -- are quite complex on another, and if I were 6, I might have some trouble answering them too.

Anyway, as she continued with the discussion, S. suddenly said, "How do we know the Bible is true?  I mean, how can you really know it happened?"

While the timing wasn't superb, her question was.  How can we know?  I was proud of her for asking it, for thinking it and for wanting to know the answer.  Interestingly, the "interviewer" was glad she asked it too.  At the end, rather than saying S. wasn't ready for baptism (as I suspected she might), she actually said that her question about the validity of Scripture made her think my daughter truly DID believe.  She just wants to confirm her belief and truly understand it.

My daughter plans to be baptized soon to make a public confession of her faith, but in the meantime, she has begun to be a missionary.  When she was at a pumpkin patch last week, a little girl (who she did not know) got stranded on top of a high hay bale.  S. wanted to help her get down, but couldn't reach her.  So she said to the little girl, "Do you know Jesus?"  The girl apparently said, "Yes."  Then S. said, "Well, He will help you get down, and He will keep you safe."  She told me in the car on the way home, "I was a missionary today." 

May I be a missionary like little S. too.

In Him,

Lucy P.

Comments

[Thomas More]

Way to go S!!! Great story. C & C keep wrestling with the issue of baptism. Theire main hang-up, it seems, is that it has to be done in front of so many people.

[beth]

Thomas, might it help if the girls had something to read or recite in their statement of faith? (the Apostle's Creed)

For the Orthodox, people are baptized in the middle of the church with everyone around, so though everyone can see, they are not up on a pedestal, as it were. Could whatever is used be brought down in to the midst of the congregation?

Just a few thoughts.

Beth

[Thomas More]

Beth,

It's done in a nearby swimming pool or in the ocean. That makes the moving the baptismal tough at our church. That's the practical.

From the symbolic, I do like them having to have everyone in their faith community staring at them. Like the public commitment made at a marriage ceremony, they need to stand up in front of witnesses and publicly proclaim "I'm on your team now, help me follow Jesus" (so to speak.) So, from the public proclamation standpoint, I don't mind them having to be up front. It makes it a bigger commitment when others know and are charged with supporting you in the decision--just as with marriage.

My two cents.

[nicodemus]

All of the above seems fine. Just don't do what I learned was done in the followers of the 2nd century heretic Montanus, which was to baptize "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Lord Montanus"!