One Small Giant Splosh: A Young Man's Baptism

It’s a quiet sunny Sunday afternoon in June – idyllic actually. The white waters, swollen with late rains, race under the old mill bridge; speckled sunlight breaks through upon the swirling waters. 

The grassy slope leads downwards to the mill stream; we line the bank; a brave young man, with earnest face, clambers down the slope and wades into the water, waist deep, and others join him.
 

Passers-by lean idly over the old bridge to take a better view of this unusual Sunday afternoon spectacle in this quiet and scenic spot.

“I baptise you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit ...”

I hear the sudden splosh as he is plunged downward, under; somehow that single, brief sound resonates in my ears; it feels alive, electric, purely natural but of great eternal significance – and now he’ s up again, dripping wet, worshipping, trembling with the cold - and clambers out.

A watery death ... down and up ... alive with resurrection life ... to follow Jesus. One small splosh, one giant act, of enormous significance. Here heaven and earth have met, a wonderful supernatural-natural fusion.

 Young man, my friend of many years – you have a single-eye for all that is of God – many a battle fierce awaits – remain surrounded by the strong and stand solidly upon this act, this fact, ‘I’ve died

and risen; everyday - my resurrection day!’