ONE OF YOUR OWN

Today, I realize I am extremely blessed.  I serve with the most loving and caring people you will ever meet.  For some reason (proof to me that God still does miracles) they allow me to be their preacher.

Yesterday was the sixth time I was given the opportunity to step-up to the pulpit since I’ve been back.  It’s been amazing for me to preach through the grace I have been shown.  While I would never want to go through or put anyone else through the pain we have shared together, I am thankful for the work God has done.  Each week I truly have a message burning within, that I feel called to share.  I pray that God’s Word will always call me to the pulpit and never the pulpit pull me into God's word.

Yesterday we had two more baptisms!  I know I always get excited about these, but yesterday was extra-special.  It was a dad and son.  Seeing the dad be baptized and then turn around and baptize his son was truly moving.  It didn’t hit me until later, when one of my friends pointed out, how awesome it is seeing a dad and son become brothers!

I remember right after my dad baptized me, Jeff G. (a former youth minister of mine), said to my dad while we were both dripping wet from coming out of the water, “There’s nothing like baptizing one of your own.”  It has always been strange to me that this memory of Jeff’s words, to my dad, has stuck with me for so long.  Why should I care what was said to my dad?  Why can I not remember what Jeff said to me?  Why do I remember that so vividly?  Yesterday, it clicked.

“There’s nothing like baptizing one of your own.”  Seeing a dad and son become brothers is a dream I hope for my children and me.  However, it runs so much deeper.  This is the dream the Father has for all of us!  This is why the one matters more than the 99.  There’s nothing like baptizing one of your own.

-I am blessed in that He calls me one of His own!