The Watery Grave
I stood behind the crowd of people and stood on my tiptoes to see over them into the deep hole that everyone had gathered around. I could hardly believe that this was where we were going to do the baptisms!
Instead of a beautifully build baptistry with pristine holy water inside, we had to search for any water we could find in this hot, dry desert in the middle of dry season, when all the rivers and drain-offs have dried up. But here in this hole in the ground, God had provided just enough water for two people to crawl down into - a milky brown mud puddle that was the only available water for miles.
The crowd pushed in close, everyone looking down into the pit as the preacher and the first new convert entered in. They sunk into the mud, the water came up to waist-level, and as the church sang songs of praise, the preacher dipped the man into the water and he totally disappeared under the creamy gray water. He resurrected to the sound of cheering and singing, the he left his sins in the filthy pit.
As he climbed out with the help of many hands pulling him up, I heard an echo of a distant memory in my head of a preacher I heard long ago who spoke of the "watery grave of baptism."
And suddenly, what I had considered to be a slightly gross and appalling place to have a baptism event became the most fitting baptistry I've ever seen. For that's exactly what I saw - a watery grave - and people were coming out of it resurrected into new life.
Fourteen more people followed after him - men, women, and adolescents - all washed their sins away in dirty water and climbed up out of the pit like they were climbing out of the grave. "The old has gone and the new has come!"
Praise God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the empty grave, and the invitation he gives us to join him by dying to self and being resurrected into life by the spirit and by faith in the Son of God, who went to the grave first so that we could have eternal life with him.
Instead of a beautifully build baptistry with pristine holy water inside, we had to search for any water we could find in this hot, dry desert in the middle of dry season, when all the rivers and drain-offs have dried up. But here in this hole in the ground, God had provided just enough water for two people to crawl down into - a milky brown mud puddle that was the only available water for miles.
The crowd pushed in close, everyone looking down into the pit as the preacher and the first new convert entered in. They sunk into the mud, the water came up to waist-level, and as the church sang songs of praise, the preacher dipped the man into the water and he totally disappeared under the creamy gray water. He resurrected to the sound of cheering and singing, the he left his sins in the filthy pit.
As he climbed out with the help of many hands pulling him up, I heard an echo of a distant memory in my head of a preacher I heard long ago who spoke of the "watery grave of baptism."
And suddenly, what I had considered to be a slightly gross and appalling place to have a baptism event became the most fitting baptistry I've ever seen. For that's exactly what I saw - a watery grave - and people were coming out of it resurrected into new life.
Fourteen more people followed after him - men, women, and adolescents - all washed their sins away in dirty water and climbed up out of the pit like they were climbing out of the grave. "The old has gone and the new has come!"
Praise God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the empty grave, and the invitation he gives us to join him by dying to self and being resurrected into life by the spirit and by faith in the Son of God, who went to the grave first so that we could have eternal life with him.
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