Let His Little Child Come In

I had just had a crazy weekend. . .I'm still tired! I travelled between Grand Forks and Fargo to see family and attend various showers. The dissapointing thing about the weekend was that my camera had a dead battery and I left my charger in Bismarck so I don't have any photos of all the fun! I am very dissapointed because Justin's sister and her husband own an old house near downtown Grand Forks and just did a big renovation project that could have given me several days of material but neither of us had a camera there this weekend! I don't think describing it would be the same without pictures, so I will save that for another day.

On Sunday morning, our newest nephew, Cayson Reid, was baptized in Grand Forks. I haven't gone to church on a regular basis since high school due to the fact that I spend the whole time daydreaming, regardless of the religion, charisma of the clergy, traditional or contemporary nature of the service or season of the church calender. The only thing that really impacts me is music (and not the crummy music we used to perform once a month as Sunday school students. I appologize to anyone who had to listen to that. I know we really were not that cute to look at and not pleasant at all to hear! We did not do anything worthwhile for "Give Me Oil in My Lamp" or "Jesus Loves the Little Children). Another thing that stands out to me is baptisms. Although baptims are a happy occasion I always find myself getting caught off guard by emotion due to the combination of the innocence and beauty of the baby just starting its life surrounded by love and the fact that the ceremony is often preceded or followed by the song "Jesus Loves Me". Although it is a simple song associated with childhood, sunday school and beginners' piano lessons, it makes me emotional because that song is also played often at funeral services and the last verse, "Jesus loves me, he who died, Heaven's gates to open wide, he will wash away my sin, let his little child come in," applies perfectly to celebrating the beginning and ending of life. On that verse, the organist always combines the organ's stops to make a loud and joyful sound, in contrast to the somber tone of the previous verses, and it makes me feel emotional every time. It can be pretty intense, and I'm sure other people will relate when reading this.

I know I'm not alone in feeling this impact from a baptism. There are examples of the feelings they can conjure in famous TV shows and movies. I immediately think of the show "Sex and the City", and the episode where the skeptical and cynical (and hilarious) character Miranda agrees to have her baby baptised even though she isn't religious in order to please her future husband and the baby's father. She and the other women are caught off guard when they are all moved by the ritual. And who can leave out the famous baptism scene in the movie "The Godfather" when the diabolical Michael Corleone stands up as his nephew's godfather. The scene alternates between images of the baby in a white lace outfit being baptised while Michael vows to renounce evil and images of a murderous rampage of revenge instigated by Michael and the Corleone family, empasizing the way that every person has multiple sides to their personality (although "The Godfather" is a pretty extreme example!)

I don't really know what the point of this was. . .I guess to say congratulations to my new little nephew! He's a sweet baby and he has alot of people behind him!