I love in the Bible that it says that heaven rejoices when someone comes to God. I think there was a LOT of rejoicing this weekend. In fact, I know there was a lot of rejoicing this weekend...I was there.
Baptism has become my favorite expression of faith; it is so public that you can't deny the decision, you can't be ashamed of your faith, you can't ignore the community of Christ followers cheering you on in that moment. The excitement of sharing that with people always overwhelms me.
This was one of those weekends. It's so powerful to see people make decisions to be baptized...it's so powerful when that decision happens in a heartbeat--because you can't deny the work of the Holy Spirit in those moments. Not only did we have 3 people baptized during service Saturday night, 3 more decided in the moment after service to make that commitment.
One of those 3 people was one of my leaders. He has been a dedicated leader for a long time now...and he played guitar this weekend. It was a whirlwind after service, and next thing I knew he was in the baptistry--in all his clothes, not even bothering to change, throwing things out of his pockets to his kids, his wife with tears running down her face (and she wasn't the only one)...it was one of the more beautiful moments I've seen. We celebrated loud and hard for him. And the angels danced, I'm sure of it.
This morning Jenn came in and said that her daughter Avery decided last night she wanted to be baptized. It was clear on Jenn's face how much that decision meant. My friend Heather told me that when her sons decided to get baptized it was the biggest moment of her life as a parent--that even though you think about the day when they'll leave home and get married and become parents themselves, the most important moment in a parent's life is seeing their children give their lives to Christ. It was so incredible to see our whole church celebrating with Jenn and Carter as they baptized their daughter this morning. And the angels danced.
They dance for each of us, every time we find our way back to God. No one is too unimportant. I like to think we each get our own individual dance, and that maybe when I get to heaven I can have a patented dance move the angels did when I made that decision. And when we're all there together, I can teach you The Charissa.
And the angels will dance. Forever and ever.
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3 comments:
What an awesome day! I love this church! Thanks for posting this awesome celebration of people finding their way back to God and CCC helping them do that! - Julie
I want you to know right now, I am constructing a dance that will be known as the Charissa. ;)
I like it in the Bible where it says every time a bell rings, and angel gets its wings.
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