Monday, August 23, 2010

A Day of Baptism

I'm not sure if I've admitted it on this blog before, but I do get nervous for baptisms. It has nothing to do with the ceremony itself. It has to do with the child. In the United Methodist denomination, we believe in infant baptism.

Pastor Jim has a fear of infants. Don't ask me where it came from, but babies make me uncomfortable. Some of it has to do with my paranoia that something will happen to the child while it is in my care. It might hurt itself or I might drop the child while I am holding it. Irrational? Perhaps.

I can mentally prepare for one baptism on a Sunday, but two?!? In fact, we had one baby being baptized in the Tabor church and one baby and young child baptized in the Oakfield church! My main goal was just not to screw up.

During the Tabor worship service, the baby to be baptized was doing some crying and needed to be taken out of the service for a little while. After that episode, he spent the majority of the baptism asleep. When the water hit the head he barely opened his eyes to see what was going on and then he went back to sleep. It could not have gone smoother.

During the Oakfield worship service, the baby was a little antsy to start, but once she was in my arms she seemed to relax. Of course, when I wasn't looking, she managed to steal my cordless lapel microphone :-D. It made for a cute moment.

So...both services went well, and my overall fear of babies continues to go down...but, it's still there.

I could definitely feel the presence of the Holy Spirit during both worship services. All gathered hopefully remembered their baptism!

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