Savannah's Salvation

This column was originally published in the Palestine Herald Press on September 28, 2003. It means a lot to me, so I thought I would share it again:

My daughter has been asking me for several months to baptize her and today I‘m going to do it. I’m going to do it even though I’m convinced she doesn’t fully understand what it means. After all, how can a seven-year-old grasp the idea that the God who created the universe wants to have a friendship with her and so he came to earth in bodily form to pay for her sin so that he can.
I guess I’ve been moving slow on this because I wanted to make sure she really was ready for this commitment. Many parents struggle with this, wondering if their children are old enough for such a decision. So, we proceeded with caution. We didn’t push her to talk about it, but let her bring it up. Meanwhile we continued to take her to church every Sunday and Wednesday, we continued to pray with her at meals and bedtime, and we continued to talk openly about our faith in our home.
And sure enough, she kept bringing it up. I remember being in the pool one hot day this summer and she asked me to baptize her right there in the back yard. (It’s funny, our son asked me the same thing the summer before I baptized him.) I knew she was close, but I just wanted to make sure she understood what she was asking.
Here lately, she brought it up several more times. My wife and I sat and listened to her but she wasn’t saying what we thought we needed to hear. We explained the gospel to her as simply as we could. We told her that we all are sinners and need forgiveness so we can have a relationship with Holy God. That forgiveness saves us from God’s anger toward sin. We explained that Jesus died for us on the cross to pay for our sin and erase that wrath. She shook her head with understanding and said she wanted to ask Jesus to save her. So, we helped her pray that prayer.
Last Sunday, she came down to the front during our church’s invitation and made her decision public. She wasn’t emotional about it and that’s okay. She didn’t have years of stubbornness and sin to feel sorry about, she just knew she had asked Jesus to save her and wanted to tell everyone about it.
By the way, she may not have been emotional, but I was a basket case!
After I baptize her today, I’m going to preach on the story in the Bible where mothers were bringing their children to Jesus. The disciples tried to stop them, but Jesus said to let them come and not to hinder them. The Kingdom of Heaven is entered only when we have a child’s faith, he said. A child’s faith is simple, humble and complete.
The truth? I still don’t understand how the God who created the universe wants a friendship with me and paid a heavy price to get it. I’ll never really understand that. Who am I that God would die for me? But we aren’t saved based on our knowledge, understanding or good deeds, we are saved based on our faith. My daughter has a child’s faith and that’s all she needs.

(For the record, I baptized my son the Sunday after September 11, 2001.)