Shyloh's Baptism

“Dad, can you pick us up at the airport?”

“Of course. How long can you stay; a month or two?”

She giggled, “Just the weekend.”

It wasn’t long, but nothing short of awesome.

Taking grandkids on their first trip to the ocean ranks right up there with teaching them to walk and ride a bike. Their wide eyes as they scan the horizon and can’t see the other side. The funny face when they slap the waves and taste the salty water. The non-stop picking up of shells.

But, none of that, compared to the request from my youngest daughter, Shyloh.

She’d grown weary of an on-again, off-again relationship, with God. She wanted the battle to end. “Dad, do you think—” she paused for a moment and her voice got small— “you could baptize me?”

She saw making an outward expression of an inward confession, that Jesus Christ is Lord of her life, as the answer to her dilemma.

I saw it as an answer to a thousand prayers.

As far as eye could see along the sandy shores of the Gulf of Mexico, spring breakers played in the water and laid on the beach.

They were fully committed to fun in the sun.

My daughter looked beyond the sand and the sea, to the One Who made it.

She was fully committed to the Son.

She drew a line in the sand, before God, thousands of spring-breakers and multitudes of angels, from this moment forward, come hell or high water, Jesus is Lord of my life.

The sun danced on the water as we waded into the salty Gulf, the waves broke against our legs, a multitude of voices mingled with the seagulls’ call; but for a moment, while we stood in waist deep water, they were all gone.

It was just her and I, with The Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

She nodded in agreement that her old self was buried with Christ and she was born again, resurrected with Him, to new Life.

Humbled and honored, I gently laid my daughter, back into the water.

Sure, I know, I’m her dad, perhaps a bit biased, but when she came up, there was a glow even a blind man could see. There’s no doubt about it, even with the multiplied thousands of college girls in bikinis…she was by far, the most beautiful lady, inside and out, on that beach.

What she did, was no small thing. A single mom with two young kids. She flew down on Friday and returned on Sunday. That’s not much time. The effort was huge. The expense great. The time short…yet she counted the cost and found it worthwhile.

She knows, Jesus showed, the difference between Friday and Sunday can make all the difference in the world.

We may never know, this side of heaven, the difference she made, the seeds she planted, in someone else who looked on and saw and thought…I need to do that too.

Perhaps next year we’ll return to that same spot. Only this time Shyloh will be baptizing college kids from all around.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, thank You for the awesome honor of baptism.

Give us a hunger like Shyloh, to be fully committed to You.

After being baptized, You entered a time of testing and temptation. Lord, we ask for Your Presence to saturate us, Your holy angels to surround and protect us. Holy Spirit, thank You for reminding us of Your Word, Your Promises and our commitment to one another.

Your will be done in our lives and our country.

We love You Lord Jesus.

Amen.