Not alone in our Baptism

Think back to either when you were baptized, or to a baptism you remember.

I can remember my own.  I was seven, and I wore a white dress.  I remember standing in front of the congregation at the Presbyterian church near where we lived.

Among the other baptisms I can remember are those of my two sons.  I remember family joining us in church.  I remember all of us sitting together, and I remember standing up with our sons as either Dr. Wood or Rev. Campbell (depending on the son) baptized the boys.  I remember the congregation's responses in the liturgy, and I know that many of those who sat in the congregation are the same people who taught their Sunday school classes, who watched them in plays at Christmas, who gave money so that they could go on mission trips and experience the joy of youth groups.  These were the same people who hug them when they come back from college, and they are the same people who help to model for them what it means to be a believer.  These people are the body of Christ for them.

The devotional I read this morning said this, "...baptism is a community experience through baptism, the Holy Spirit creates community.  There are no individual believers; we're all communal believers held together by One who transcends all time and place through eternity and grace."  (Myron Wingfield; Disciplines 2015)

We can certainly have experiences of God's nearness and revelation in solitude, but we are made to be community.  We are created to be part of the body of Christ, and that creation is seen in our baptism.