This morning, as I awoke, Jessica was on my mind.  You see, today she is being baptized.

Jessica is a typical teenager.  She is fun and giggly.  She loves to run on the beach, collect shells, and build sand castles.  She loves her animals.  Her room has an eclectic collection of pictures, posters, and special objects.

Yet she is a very quiet, sensitive young lady.  She reads, writes creatively, thinks deeply, and takes her time making decisions.  She is focused and responsible, taking Advanced Placement classes at her high school. She discusses things with her mother, an admirable trait today.

Just this month Jessica celebrated her “sweet 16^th” birthday.  She is at that exciting time in her life when she takes on the very adult responsibility of driving a car.  It is a birth, of sorts, because it is the beginning of a new way of life.

This month, also, she is celebrating a more important and meaningful milestone.  She is being baptized today.  I know she has given this much thought, because that is her nature.  She will be washed in the water and the Word.  Her baptism is a birth, as well.  It is a birth into Jesus.

Baptism as a young person is a choice that is made with thoughtfulness and prayer.  It is a choice made after much talking with Jesus.  That alone is the beginning of a new way of life.  It is the beginning of a personal relationship with our Lord.  How wonderful that we can talk to Jesus any time of the day or night, and He will hear us!

God’s richest blessings to you, Jessica, on your baptism day!

My father always told me to look up the meaning of a word, and I found it fascinating to find out where that word came from.  With that in mind, I looked up the word baptize.  Webster’s Dictionary says that it comes from the Latin word baptizare and the Greek word baptizein both of which mean to dip in water.  Reading further in Webster’s the definition is 1. to dip or immerse in water, or to pour or sprinkle water upon, as a religious rite; to administer baptism to  2. to cleanse, purify, initiate, etc.  3. to give a name to at baptism; to christen.

Whether your church baptizes by immersion or by sprinkling, or whether a name is given or not, the day you or your children are baptized is a special day.  Remember that blessed day of baptism or christening with a gift of Christian art  for home decor that will be treasured long after the day.