Today’s special edition post is from Tova Dad, my favorite daughter and Virtual Assistant. She lives outside of Amarillo with her husband and their two daughters.

My oldest daughter was baptized this Sunday.

There. I didn’t bury the lead.

Three years ago, at age 5, my daughter asked Jesus to be her Rescuer so she could join God’s family.

She accepted the free gift. She put Jesus on the throne of her life. She was born again. She made a personal decision to follow Jesus. She became a Christian.

There are so many ways that church people try to explain what happens when an individual surrenders their life to Christ (see, there’s another one).

The issue is that it is impossible to describe what happens in that moment when our spirit separates itself from our mortal flesh, becomes one with our Savior, and welcomes the Holy Spirit into our very soul.

One of the resources that has helped guide my husband and I in discipling our children from a young age is the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones that was given to each of our children when they were dedicated and blessed at our church soon after they were born.

I HIGHLY recommend this book, not just for children or parents of children, but for all adults as well, whether they grew up reading the Bible and attending church or not.

Each story through the Old and New Testaments is chosen as a way to highlight that the person of Jesus, who was with God and was God in the beginning (John 1:1), was foretold since Eden. That gold thread weaves through every book of the Bible, through the life of Jesus, His death and resurrection, and the story of His disciples after He returned to Heaven.

It talks about how God never stopped trying to make a way for us to come back home — that if we could not come to Him, He would come to us. And how His “never stopping, never giving up, always and forever love” meant that He would never abandon us.

To redirect this rabbit hole, those are the terms with which my children have learned about God. And we have talked over many of those stories through the years, sometimes late into the night when one sister is asleep, but the other one had pressing questions on her mind.

After she asked Jesus to be her Rescuer, our conversations started pointing towards baptism. We wanted it to be something she chose, not something she felt pushed into (no pun intended).

We talked about how Jesus Himself was baptized, not just as an example to us, but to follow God’s wishes for Him.

We talked about how Simon Peter reacted when Jesus presented Himself as a servant to wash His disciple’s feet before the last supper.

We talked about how baptism is like acting out a story we share with our friends about something they can’t see in your heart that has already happened.

I think the explanation that finally stuck was in regards to birthdays and birthday parties: a birthday never changes, but will always happen on the same day every year, but the birthday party might not happen on the same day every year. It’s just the day that is most favorable for our friends and us to gather.

Baptism is like that: she already had the birthday when she asked Jesus to be her Rescuer and we celebrated with our family, but baptism is calling up all your friends to gather and celebrate the event that had already taken place.

And let me tell you, we celebrated! She was so excited to tell everyone she encountered that she was getting baptized. And we filled up the pew and then some of people who came especially to celebrate with us.

She also took communion with us for the first time right before she was baptized. I explained/reminded her of what the bread and juice are supposed to remind us, and the story of the last supper that Jesus shared with His friends before He was arrested.

The “bread” was first, and she was skeptical, but she ate it.

(I have to pause here and say that the pre-packaged communion pods our church has been using since the pandemic are not my favorite either, but I do appreciate the opportunity to take part in that deliberate act without concern for how many others have touched it before me.)

Then came the “wine.”

Now, I’ve attended several churches since leaving home, and each had their own style when it came to communion. Some had grape juice. Others had wine, or wine with a juice option. Our current church uses grape juice, but just remember what I said about the communion pods.

She put it up to her lips, paused and sniffed, and then she asked me the most wonderful question that I blew through at the time:

“Is this medicine?”

Those pods really do smell and taste like Dimetapp!

I said, “No, drink it,” then hurried off to get her little sister so she could join in the celebration.

But it was already ringing in my heart that her innocent question deserved a better answer than I gave it in the moment.

Of course it’s medicine!

Just as her baptism represented the transformative moment that happened 3 years ago, this little wafer and Dimetapp juice is a pale, watery reflection of the greatest sacrifice ever made.

The Great I AM lived among us and proclaimed that “healthy people don’t need a doctor — sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Mark 2:17).

My daughter’s testimony, read out by our youth pastor as she prepared to be baptized said:

“I need Jesus because we have sin and we are not perfect. Jesus took away the sin when He died for us. Now that I’ve accepted Jesus as my Rescuer, I’m part of God’s family. My heart has changed because the Holy Spirit lives in my heart now.”

Folks, that is some amazing medicine!