A few months back, one of my granddaughters asked me to study the Bible with her. So in August I studied a number of passages of the Bible with all the grandchildren. Our studies were Discovery Bible Studies. That means we studied as a group, that I wanted them to draw their own conclusions from the Bible, and that we focused on "what it says," "what it means," and "so what?"
The passages were all from 5 to 10 verses - some on who Christ is, some on faith and some on baptism. I gave each of them a notebook, a ruler and a pencil. We wrote the Bible reference at the top of the page, then we made 3 columns on the sheet. On the left hand side, we wrote out part of the passage, whatever they together said was the most important part of the passage. Then we talked about what the passage means - sometimes we talked about the meaning verse by verse, sometimes the passage as a whole. Then we wrote down what we concluded about what it means. In the 3rd column we wrote "so what?" and I had them talk about what we could do to obey the passage. We wrote those things down. We did 12 studies together.
I had to be patient and work slowly with them, since they are young. One of them did not know how to spell the words, so writing it out was laborious. But it was worth the time and effort.
Last week one of the girls said, "I'm ready. I want to be baptized Sunday. I have to do it."
Saturday night we had dinner together at our house. We brought out the pottery from our wedding shower and cooked steak and chicken and taquitos. We had wild rice and green beans. And ice cream for dessert. And we gave the girl planning to be baptized a little book called "God Thinks You're Wonderful" She loved it. First she read what we wrote in the front, smiled and said thank you. Then she read some pages to us, delighted with what it said to her. Then her mother gave her a journal and encouraged her to keep a spiritual journey book. She treasured that too.
She wrote out what she wanted to say to the church at the baptism on Sunday, but when the time came, she said, "Just ask me questions." So I asked her, "Do you believe Jesus is God's Son?" and "Do you believe that Jesus died for us?"and "Do you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead?" and "Do you say that Jesus is Lord?" To all these she said "yes."
Then I told the church about the studies we had done. I said that I have baptized many people, and this one has the same joy as all the rest. Well, maybe a little more joy.
And I reminded her that her grandmother was baptized at 8 years old, that her mother was baptized at 9, and that she has models of women who stay with Jesus all their lives, so she can do it too. Then I said, "By the mercies of God, you will now receive the baptismal wash in the name of God your Father, in the name of Jesus your Lord, and in the name of the Spirit who guides you. And all your life you will live in the promise of forgiveness and having the Holy Spirit with you. Amen."
And helping her under the water was a most weighty thrill, a joy without parallel. I have felt warm all day, and it has nothing to do with Texas at 105 degrees. And she has been smiling all day.
