While our friends the Pulliams came up to visit for New Years Eve, Elisa asked me about baptism as an adult. Actually she asked, "Do you think Marc would baptize me tomorrow?" I handed her the phone and said "You'll have to call him." (He and Stephen were going to see Rocky.) She called and internally I was gasping to process the question... the very question that I had been wondering about nearly all Fall. I found that in my mind that "Should I get baptized?" had become "When will I get baptized?"
After she talked to Marc, who gave a quick 'YES!' she and I talked. I told her that I think infant baptism is a real thing. As a sacrament, it is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of our choice. She and I both talked about our infant baptisms, and agreed. The Holy Spirit did something then. But we both felt like we wanted to do something now. Not so much as a time to 'sign up' with God - we've been walking with Him for years - but as a symbol of burying the 'old life'. And for me, I don't have a 'conversion date'.... I've just always kind of known God, and grown in my knowing of Him.
Elisa and I have always been pregnant together. She was pregnant with her first, then two months later we were pregnant. Her second, six months later our second. Our third, eight or so months later, their third (and fourth!). It seems that once again, we were pregnant at the same time, this time in the Spirit.
So with my dear friend Elisa (and her daughter Leah... my 'god-daughter'... that's another story... their story), and by the hands of my best friend and husband, I got baptized on December 31, 2006.
Happy New Year. Happy New Life.
(to hear the sermon and our thought that day, go to www.vcwaterville.org/sermons.htm and click on the Dec. 31 sermon to download it)
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