Walk in newness

My 3-year-old knows Jesus.  Technically she will be four in just over 2 weeks, so she’s not on the baby side of being three. But she is still kind of a baby; she still mixes up her “d” and “g” sounds, aftermath of using a pacifier too long after being able to speak.

We have been clear with our kids since they were little about spiritual things. Jesus commended child-like faith, so why not encourage faith while they are children? So when they ask questions, or when we’re talking about day to day things, we do our best to answer matter-of-factly about what the Bible says about the stuff of life.

We tell our kids about everything when they ask, in their level. How do clouds get in the sky? Uh, they’re frozen water drops, all stuck together in the cold, cold air up there. How do sunflowers grow? We plant the seeds, then water them, and the sun shines and the ground is warm, and then the roots go down and the stem grows up, and then after a few days the leaves push up out of the ground. How does gas make cars go? It lights a little spark which makes a little explosion “boom” in the engine; that pushes the piston, which makes the gears turn, and turns the wheels. What’s a tampon for? It’s for moms. I’ll tell you about it when you’re older. When they ask about God, heaven, Jesus, our hearts, bad feelings, getting along, or anything that the Bible has a bearing on, we do our best to break it down for them, so they can understand it and we can give them a real answer.

When she was almost three, we had a talk about the Easter story.  The main points were that Jesus is alive, and that sin is mean and bad, it makes us sad and it makes God sad. But because Jesus died on the cross and then rose again to win over death and sin, he can take your sad heart full of sin and give you a new heart. “And it will not be ice!” (like in Frozen), was her contribution. “Yes! He will give you a new, warm, loving heart. Do you want Jesus to give you that?” She did, we talked, we prayed, and that is how Jesus came to live in her heart.

A few weeks ago we started talking about baptism with our girls, knowing that there would be an opportunity to be baptized this summer. Our practice of baptism is that it’s the choice of the individual believer, to demonstrate walking in newness of life, a decision to follow Jesus, and an act of obedience.

We’re part of an evangelical church where we don’t practice infant baptism, but we do baby dedications, where the parents and extended family gather to declare that this child is a gift from the Lord, and as their parents, our intention is to raise the child up as a steward, in the teaching of the Word and in the community of believers.

A picture from my own baptism was unearthed recently and my girls were intrigued. “You were baptized?” I told them about it. I wasn’t baptized until I was 18. I realized I hadn’t been baptized, and so during youth camp, when there was an opportunity, I couldn’t rest until I’d gotten that settled. I called my parents, made sure it was OK that I was baptized when they would miss it, then later that week I donned swimsuit and ponytail to be dunked in a slimy lake in southern Mississippi.  It was in a camp community of believers who had impacted my life dramatically and I’m still walking in fellowship with many of them.

Because of our effort to explain things as clearly and as theologically accurately as we can, we explained what the Bible says about baptism. It’s something Jesus told us to do. It’s something we do when we believe that He died for our sins and made us new. The water is like when Jesus died and was buried–we go under the water–and then he rose again, and we rose with Him–and we come out of the water. We live a new life by trusting Him.

They get that.

Because the 3-year-old wanted to be baptized, our family attended the pre-baptism meeting with the pastor and a few other people who expressed interest in baptism. The Kindergartener (who has now graduated to 1st grade, ohmygoodness) sat with us and read through the scriptures in the handout the pastor gave us. She has known Jesus for a little over a year as well. She loves reading, and reads along with me if I run my finger along the words. To give her the chance to read it, as the pastor read the verses, I read them along with my finger.

Half way through the verses, around “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom 6:3), she gasped. Within about 2 minutes she had whispered to my husband, “I want to be baptized too!” My heart leapt, because I knew that moment was one of revelation, not of coercion, not of obligation, but of the Holy Spirit speaking to her heart and putting the desire there to obey and be baptized.

Should we wait until they are able to give a thesis on why they should be baptized? I could have written one. Maybe I did, I don’t remember. They are able to say that they want to be baptized, and they want to do it because they love Jesus and they want to show that they are following Him.

Should we wait until they can remember it in detail so they can look back on it more concretely? I don’t know that this is the most important thing, either–I was 18, but I don’t remember that much about it; in fact, if not for the picture, I wouldn’t remember who else was standing there with me, just that my youth leader at the time was the one who actually baptized me, and that to reach my parents from the campground we had to use a pay phone because there was no cell signal. Our church now has video live stream and they did a video interview and will give us a copy of the interviews and the baptism. They will be able to relive it to their little hearts’ content.

Should we wait until they can swim? Really, we thought about this. They are going to have to stand on a stool just to have their heads above water level before they are baptized. I am almost convinced we’ll have to do a practice run in the pool just so they don’t freak when they’re standing in the water. That would literally take years to shake, I’m sure.

Should we wait until they really understand it? My question in response to that is, At what point is there sufficient understanding of baptism? Isn’t deciding to follow Jesus, wanting to imitate Him in his obedience of baptism, and showing on the outside by water baptism the change on the inside, enough? Did the early believers who were baptized when the Apostles stood up and preached the gospel in Acts, understand all of the theology of what baptism in Jesus’ name entailed? Probably not. But did they believe and obey and join the community of disciples? That’s what the Bible says.  They even were baptized promptly after believing; it wasn’t a long process of learning, getting right, going to seminary, and having a good track record of discipleship. They repented, believed, and were baptized. Then they walked it out. Most of them were beyond elementary school age, surely, but does age play a factor in obedience?

Because the Bible doesn’t spell out exactly at what point it’s required or desired, it doesn’t have a recipe for the method, sprinkling or immersion or whatever, (and this is not a discussion of the method, I’m just sharing how we do it) it just says “make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19) we are following that, believing that “the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39)

So this Sunday, my husband will stand with our girls in that baptismal tub in front of the church and they will show their decision to follow Jesus. And we’ll do our best to follow Him as we lead them in following Him.