One of the privileges I've had as a father has been baptizing my oldest daughter Chandler last year. My second daughter Reynolds, who is 18 months younger than Chandler, has been asking questions about Jesus since that time but hasn't really expressed an understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Today, Reynolds was riding her Razr scooter in haphazard manner that she usually does when the inevitable finally happened - she wiped out. To make it worse she was wearing a dress and the road rash is all up and down her left leg. Thank the Lord she didn't split her head open.
Once things settled down and she was good and cleaned up, she looked at me and said that she wanted me to baptize her but not until her leg got better. I asked her what she thought baptism meant and she asked me to explain because she wasn't exactly sure. When I told her it was a public profession of salvation, she wanted to know what it meant to be saved. I then walked her through the gospel - we are sinners, Jesus died to forgive us of our sins and rose to conquer death, and we respond to that great loving sacrifice by surrendering our lives to Him - all of which she understood and was ready to make a reality in her life.
When I invited her to talk to God about it in prayer, she said that she just wanted me to do it with her and not mommy since mommy "isn't a preacher or anything like that." Thankfully she acquiesced when I told her that it was okay for anyone to lead another person to Christ and they didn't have to be a preacher. Kellie and I then had the joy of praying with our daughter and hearing her tell God that she loved Him, how she knew that she was a sinner, how she believed in Jesus and his forgiveness through His death on the cross, and how she was ready to open up her heart to Him in surrender. When we were finished praying I asked her where Jesus was right now and without hesitation she told me the He was living inside of her heart. Praise God!
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