The main significance of baptism is that it puts an end to one way of living, and begins a new one. Jesus washes away our sinful nature, and gives us a new nature. Our baptism is our way of publicly accepting his wonderful spiritual gift.

And this is what parents do on behalf of their babies. It is an important act of love, at the end of an incredibly busy time for Mother and Father. Since Baby's birth Mother has been on call 24 hours a day, making sure that her new baby is cared for. And now in baptism the parents are dedicating this new precious life to God.

Babies cry:
They have needs and it's their way of communicating those needs to the people who care for them. When they grow up they will learn to present their requests to God by prayer.

Babies feed:
In babies' early years it seems that is all they do. As they grow up they will need spiritual food to grow spiritually healthy. In 1 Peter it says "Like new-born babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation." Just as you feed babies the most nutritional food, you can "feed" them with a nourishing spiritual diet - try stories from a children's Bible. They make a tremendous impact upon a young child.

Babies make a mess:
It can be seen that no sooner do you put it in one end, it arrives at the other end! As babies grow older they will make messes in lots of other ways - broken toys, broken kitchen things. On the spiritual side of things no one is perfect and we all make messes too. Just as parents spend the next few years mopping up after their children, so too our Heavenly Father is well prepared and has a spiritual clean-up system in place. In 1 John it says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us...."

Babies enjoy love:
Parents spend hours cuddling, smiling and making baby noises at babies. They absorb all this and thrive on it. Just as parents love babies and can't wait until he/she smiles back, so God loves babies. God can't wait until He hears their first prayers - which will be their first smile at God.

In baptism parents are saying two things:

1] They know they can give baby all the earthly love he needs, but they need God to take care of baby's spiritual needs.
2] Until baby is old enough to choose for himself/herself, his/her parents are promising to do their best to make God's love for their son/daughter real and known to him.
When baby grows up, and throughout his/her God will always be with him/her, because he loves him/her.

Blessings
Keith Trutzenbach

1st September 2003