Drenching Grace

You probably won’t be surprised to know that I’ve been thinking about baptism.

There is a deep sense of joy and excitement that our community will be sharing in the baptism of not one, but two people in November. We will welcome Lani and Leah and recognise the grace of God already at work within them. We will set them on the surprising way of Christ, through death to new life. And we will bless them with our company and prayers and call on God’s blessing and Spirit to be theirs. I can’t help but smile when I think about it (and I’m pretty sure there will be some tears during both services- watch out Leah!).

These baptisms speak to us of God’s abundance, of the lavishness of love we experience from a God who invites us to be part of seeing everything made new. In his little book on baptismal living , Walk in this Light, Richard Giles puts it like this:

We come to the font, thirsty for the water, finding to our delight that God does not measure it out carefully, or ration it sparingly. God does not deal in tiny trickles or damp sponges in holy water stoups, for the river of God is full of water. We are utterly drenched in the love of God, for ‘deep calls to deep in the thunder of your waterfalls; all your breakers and waves have gone over me.’

We are utterly drenched in God’s love.      

We are immersed in God’s overflowing abundance.

We are drowned in grace.

Bless you, my sisters, as you find yourselves inextricably woven into the body of Christ.

May you know joy, vulnerability, community.

And may you always hear the call of Christ to keep on following, no matter where the road takes you.

– Bec