Pastor's Weekly Word

“Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” (Matthew 19:14)

This line from Matthew is something we say when we baptized a child. We typically start the whole thing off by asking all the children to come gather around the baptismal font. We ask them to look in, taking turns to make sure each child gets a chance to see in the font. “What do you see?” we ask. “Water,” they almost always say. “What else do you see?” we add. After a second or two, one of them inevitably chimes in and says, “Me!” From that moment on, they hopefully begin to see things a little differently.

One of the things I want children to know when they see a baby being baptized, or anyone for that matter, is that God loves them just as they are right now. It is an important foundational belief in our faith. God sees us and loves us as we are right this very second, with our warts, our wrongs, our misgivings, our fickleness, our hopes, our dreams, and whatever else you can put on the list.

Viewing yourself in our font is a reminder of what is seen through the eyes of God. It is my hope that part of your week involves trying to look at other people through those same eyes. Practice trying to look at the world through God colored glasses. Like the children who slowly realize the wealth of being loved by God without condition, you too might just begin to see things a little differently.