I met a beautiful family in a small town in Ecuador. Manuel and Mayela are the parents of twenty-six year old Marco and twenty-four year old Blanca. Manuel is the pastor of a small church in Cajabamba and their ministry extends into several rural villages and mountain communities.
Toward the end of the week, one of our senior girls expressed the desire to be baptized. Since we were going to be in Cajabamba, we asked Manuel if he knew of a place for baptism. This humble family was so excited that one of our team wanted to be baptized in their country. They said they would be honored to make arrangements.
Our bus parked at the top of a hill outside of town and we took a ten minute walk down a steep dirt road. When we neared the valley, one of our teenagers pointed to a bubbling brook and asked how a person could be baptized in the ankle-deep water. I said I didn’t know but we soon found out. At a bend in the stream, the water was a little deeper. Marco and Blanca had pulled off their shoes, rolled up their jeans, and started working. They stacked stones that dammed up the water and created a beautiful baptistry.
So there we gathered… twenty-seven North Americans, a dozen or so South Americans, and one European. Meagan’s friends shared Scriptures, two of our guys led a couple of songs, Pastor Manuel prayed, a missionary from Denmark shared an encouragement from the Lord, a cow wandered up, and a sheep observed from a distance. I don’t think there could have been a more beautiful scene. As Meagan went under the chilly water the sun shone down, angels rejoiced, and believers hugged.
I wonder what the Father, Son, and Spirit think about such holy moments. Does Jesus remember when John baptized him in the Jordan River? Does the Father recall telling his only begotten: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased”? Does the Spirit remember coming down like a dove? We ask, “Lord, who are we compared to you?” And God says, “You are my beloved child. I have chosen you to be a part of my kingdom that will last forever. I love you. Jesus remembered this truth every day he walked the earth. I want you to remember it too.”
“Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into his death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” Rom 6:3-8