Thoughts: Who Loves You?

Dear Cooper:

It may seem odd that your great uncle has thought it both necessary and appropriate to write you letters each day as we approach your Baptism. After all, you are just over a year old and are not going to read them; at least not soon. But, that is largely part of the point. I will share these letters with others, who I pray will read them; on your behalf as it were. In a similar way, on February 5, 2017, the ones who read these letters are going to stand before God, within the Body of the Church and confirm certain beliefs, confess their faith in God, and make a covenant with God (that is, they are going to make a very important promise to God) on your behalf. Why? The short answer to that question is: because they love you.

Of course, at this point you have been around your family long enough to know that yes there is a short answer; but if there is a long answer, we will never forsake it! We are not a family prone to short answers. I will try to send a note each day as we approach your Baptism to help you understand the importance of this act of Love.

So let’s start with this: who are these people who love you and are doing this?

First – your mom and dad. They are good ones.Keep them and honour them all the days of their life. It won’t always be easy – not sure why some folks figure it should be? Being a mom or dad is not easy; your nature, the nature of others and our collective nature have sadly drifted away from what God created us to be. Cooper, you are going to want to do things that are simply wrong, or are done for the wrong reasons. It’s a fact of our life. Long ago people chose to go their own way, thinking we knew better than God. Today, what we think of as ‘normal’ or ‘good’ is not. We have become accustomed to or acclimatized to our separation from God.

What separates us from God is called ‘sin.’ People may argue about how and when sin ‘first happens’ in us but few people suggest we are free of it. Looking around the world, and closely and carefully examining your own thoughts, words and deeds, I am certain would bring you to conclude two things: sin is real; and everyone sins.

So, I say again, being a mom or dad is not easy. They are not perfect and they sin. And you are not perfect and you sin. But God has entrusted you to them. He trusts them to raise you up knowing that you are God’s child, called by God to obediently and humbly walk in His Ways and Love as He Loves. But as you live you will be pulled toward different ideas and behaviours that would hurt and sadden God; you will convince yourself some of this is ok; you will question God’s right to limit your choices; you will question God’s place in your life. So God gives you your parents to be with you, working hard to guide you toward what God calls ‘good’ - and this is where your Love and honouring of them is tested and where parenting becomes hard. You want to go one way – God points you the other way – and mom and dad are trying to help you follow God. Pray for them. I pray they will read you the Bible each day, and as they read you all will hear what God in His perfect Love wants for each of you.

Second – your mom and dad will need some help. There will be times when what you do is just … well … not good. God knows this and He knows how your life will unfold. He wants to surround you with lots of people who know Him and His ways and His desire for you. So, He provides some help to you and your mom and dad. These are your God-parents. Bryan and Candice. Huge deal here. They are agreeing to help raise you to know and Love God – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This knowing and Loving are not just about saying it – but about meaning it – and about living it. They are promising God – they are making a covenant. I’ll talk about covenant again at some point. But understand this is big – mom and dad are giving part of your instruction and upbringing over to them – this is a big deal – I am praying that everyone understands this.

This covenant is a promise made to God, before God and through God to others. It is represented in a physical way by actions, words said, and sometimes by giving and receiving things – notice I said represented! The covenant really exists in a spiritual way within the essence of God and your God-parents. The physical stuff God provides for us as reminders of the covenant. He wants us to remember – this is important to Him.  This Baptism covenant is made surrounded by the Church who not only witness the covenant but also confirm their support of it and affirm the intent of it. Just so you know – Baptism is THAT big and THAT important to God.

So, Bryan and Candice must really love you and must be so in Love with God for they are giving themselves and are being given by God as an important and lasting gift to you. Your mom and dad brought you to physical life; they plus Candice and Bryan are commissioned by God to now bring you into eternal life.

Third – there are others. I have mentioned the Church. A massive group – sometimes called the Body of Christ - spread through all the world. The Church is also called the cloud of witness because it spans present time and all the ages. I know your grandparents, your great-grandparents and even some of your great-great-grandparents and your great-great-great-grandparents. I have known your uncles and aunts in five generations of your family whose lives stretch back to the 1800’s. I have known some of their priests and pastors. I have known places where they learned about God and worshipped Him – I have learned from them and been challenged by them. The point is this. What they are passing to you is very important.  It is not nothing. It is not naïve or old-fashioned. What they pass to you is stunning, and awesome and beyond our complete understanding. It is prideful to judge it less than this (but then, pride is born of sin and sin seeks separation from God; so I do not exaggerate). The gift now passed to you is not tarnished by wisdom nor awe (while many may say this – they do not speak truth). Wisdom and awe in Truth makes this gift of faith shine brighter than any sun or star. This gift brings Light to darkness and no darkness can ever overcome it. This gift is the Light of the world. The Church has been given us by God to bear the Light across the ages and into the world. This was God’s choice according to His perfect will. So hear the Church. Listen more, talk less and think long and hard. They stand in Loving witness of your Baptism.

Finally, I love you. I’ll do my best to encourage mom and dad, and Candice and Bryan in their faith. God alone knows how this will work itself out. I hope they will ask questions and seek clarification of anything I might say that sounds amiss. Your family and this Church are an odd mix of Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, Presbyterians and Anglicans – so everything could sound strange to somebody. But one thing I do know is that loving dialogue tears down barriers and brings unity.

So, as we approach your Baptism – I will write to you. I hope these notes will one day help you know what was done on February 5, 2017 and why. I hope they will encourage you in your faith. At the very least you will know my thoughts, what was said and done, and why.

Be blessed,

✝ HE

Tuesday, January 3, 2017