Baptisms Like No Others
As a pastor I always considered my role a special and sacred trust. I was not the least flippant about any part of it, or without love for all who constituted it. BUT, I never lost my sense of humor or failed to see the lighter side of life. Hence, the following. I administered every act of baptism with care and compassion, but….
I was visiting a home where there was a little girl who had seen her only baptism and was fascinated by it. I saw her in the back yard with a tub of water and her dolls. I watched her push her dolls under water one at a time and heard her saying, “I baptize you in the name of daddy, bubby, and in the hole you go.”
There was a baptism by a friend I can visualize. A lady on the gulf coast was saved and wanted to be baptized in the surf. The congregation gathered on the shore and sang, “Shall we gather at the river.” The pastor and the lady started wading in the low tide of the gulf. As they walked some distance trying to get in water deep enough in which to immerse her he noticed the singing was fading in the distance. He turned to look back and he was so far out the people were thumb size. Finally he sat down and began scooping out a hole deep enough for him to immerse her. Being that far from shore the people didn’t have a good view.
In my hometown Bull Travis lived in a house with no running water. The only time he had been in water was when he went swimming. Never having seen a baptism in a church when he walked to the baptistry and the pastor motioned for him to come in he went in the only way he had been in water, He dove in.
Our baptism was to be on Sunday night. When I arrived at the church I knew that due to the city working on our water line the baptistry had not had time to get full. I had bid Dave who weighed over 300 pounds get in the corner of the baptistry where he could not be seen and squat down. The tide rose and things went well.
Perhaps my all time special baptism was also my most risky. There was a family in the church with a special needs child, John. He was less than three feet tall and could not walk. In that childish body was a 16 year old mind. His health had declined to the danger point, but he insisted on being immersed. I asked the family to check with the doctor about it. The doctor said it would be life threatening. The family explained the risk with the child. He still insisted he wanted to be baptized. He could not be moved from the home so the bathtub was filled with water and very carefully I baptized him. He died a few weeks later happy he had obeyed Jesus’ example and command regarding baptism.
Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18 – 20 Have you trusted Jesus as Savior and been baptized? If not, exercise faith like little John and do it.