"I woke up this morning and decided that I want to follow Jesus - - wherever he leads, because he is so mighty; AND I want to be baptized"
it's what he announced all day long to us, to Josu, to our cashier at the grocery store, to the little lady serving us lunch at the Chinese restaurant (who kept saying, "oh sure, whatever you want; whatever you say . . . "), to any friend or family or any remotely friendly looking person who we happened to run across
and I've been thinking about it, and I feel:
OVERJOYED: to think about my boy now, and eternally, enjoying and serving the God who made him.
GLAD: that he was so confident about it all (previous to this, he would tell us that he was trying to follow Jesus) and that it came out of the blue (well, kind of, I guess - - we are always talking about following Jesus - - I mean, it's who we are and what we're all about, right? ) and that he was so insistent and excited about it all day long.
CAUTIOUS: about ever allowing Malachai to assume that because today he decided to follow Jesus, and that today he obeyed in baptism, that it's "over and taken care of"; I want to be careful to communicate that while true discipleship begins with a choice to follow, it is a lifetime of faithfulness and perseverance that God calls him to.
BLESSED: to have a church family who was willing to drop all previous plans for the evening and to join us in a heartbeat for Malachai's baptism, to genuinely rejoice with us, to insist on celebrating the Lords Table together (even when they know that the way we most enjoy celebrating the Lord's Table is as an entire meal!) and then go out to ice cream with us!
A TEENY BIT DISAPPOINTED: that we aren't in Spain, and that Malachai wasn't able to share his share his exuberance with our friends and neighbors there.
. . . and I'll wait, and I'll watch, and I'll keep loving and teaching . . .
