by Joanie Butman
My niece’s son, Owen, was baptized this week. I had the privilege and honor of being his grand godmother. He’s a lucky little boy to have two generations of women dedicated to helping him in his spiritual walk. Mathematically speaking, I doubt I will live long enough to see him hit his stride, but I will certainly be front and center cheering him on as he takes his first wobbly steps of faith. This is not the first time I’ve served in such a capacity, but I don’t think I truly grasped the responsibility of the position when I was younger. Growing up Catholic I was taught to always cover my head in church, so I chose something I thought appropriate for the occasion. I’m not sure anyone else appreciated my decision.
The priest who performed the service reminded us that the sacrament of baptism is more mystery than magic, not an imparting of God’s blessing on Owen but a calling forth of that which already exists. He went on to say that while the christening was all about Owen, it was also a time for us to once again recall that same blessing within ourselves. Ecclesiastes 3:11 states, “He has also set eternity in the human heart.” It’s a holy longing that God has planted in each of us designed to draw us near to Him and to reveal our desperate need for a Savior. Blaisé Pascal describes that holy longing as “a God–shaped vacuum in the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
In the same way God declared Christ’s identity and worth at His baptism, He’s eager to say the same to us. “This is my beloved son/daughter, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Even though Owen is a ‘good’ baby, he’s done nothing to earn God’s love and neither can we. Christ has done it for us. Some may think my headgear was me being cheeky, but it was simply my way of claiming Christ’s gift of salvation and my inheritance as a child of God. My holiness is derived from the indwelling of His Holy Spirit and so is yours when you accept Christ as your Savior through faith.
Why not choose to don your own halo by acknowledging Christ as your Rock and Redeemer? It pleases God when we stop striving and just let His love and peace wash over us like baptismal waters – not making present what is absent, but rather, revealing what is already present but hidden or missed by us when we see only with the eyes and not with heart.
