Joyful

My favorite part of any given Sunday is the moment I am given the privilege of witnessing a person putting on the Lord in Baptism. My eyes begin to tear up the moment they walk down the stairs and I am completely choked up by the time they confess Christ as their Savior.

At the church I currently attend, the baptistry is on the second story of the auditorium and broadcast via video to the congregation sitting on the first floor of the auditorium. It is by no means an ideal situation, but there is one positive aspect to witnessing the baptism via video feed, a very up-close and personal view of the baptism. Our video feed days are numbered as we just began a capital campaign that will fund renovations on our facilities to include moving the baptistry to the lower level. I find myself anticipating the change with mixed emotions, and can’t help but think back to one of the sweetest moments I’ve ever witnessed in a baptistry.

It couldn’t have been more than a year ago when two young twin girls decided they were both ready to be baptized by their father. It was an emotionally charged moment and the father choked back tears as he took his first daughter’s confession, baptized her and then wrapped his big arms around her in a great big hug. As the second daughter began her descent into the baptistry the first daughter turned to walk away but instead stretched her arms out in front of her and in a moment of pure joy dove face first into the water, coming up for air then slowly and gracefully swimming and twirling all the way back to the stairs. The auditorium burst forth in a mixture of laughter and tears at the innocent joy we were permitted to witness; to this day it is still talked about as one of the sweetest moments ever witnessed. I both laugh and choke up when I think back to that day because the joy displayed by that little girl is the joy we should all feel in the face of the all-encompassing healing power of Christ.

So many times as Christians we stifle our joy, instead favoring politeness and socially appropriate behavior. We judge or frown upon others for clapping, kneeling, singing alone, raising their hands in praise, or even closing their eyes. When the disciples cried out in praise to God during the Triumphal Entry, the Pharisees were outraged and demanded that Jesus rebuke them and how did he reply? “You’re right, they are kind of loud and we certainly don’t want to disturb anyone.” Yeah right! He said, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out!”

A while back I bought my son a set of videos designed to be a Christian version of the Baby Einstein videos called Praise Baby. I love the videos because they combine praise and worship songs with colorful animation and real world objects that stimulate my little guy’s mind in tactile, cognitive, social, emotional and most importantly spiritual ways. I love watching the videos with him and often find myself singing the songs throughout the day. Just yesterday, I was walking down the hallway and caught myself singing one of the songs from earlier that morning...

I was made to praise you
I was made to love
I was born to worship
The Father, the Son, the Spirit above
Made in Your image and wrapped in Your love

How true.

All you have made will praise you, O LORD;
your saints will extol you.
Psalm 145:10

Your thoughts?