I can’t promise that this will be the last post that is connected to events surrounding our transition from Texas, but I do anticipate that they will significantly diminish in frequency now that the move has been completed. Today’s thoughts grow out of something that happened last Monday, which was our last day in our house in Carrollton. We were going through our normal “school morning” routine which involved waking Coleman up about 6:30 for a quick bath and breakfast before the bus picked him up at 7:00. Coleman’s developmental disabilities and limitations require that we still help him with bathing. As I was scrubbing him down and washing his hair, I began nostalgically reflecting on our 12 years in the house and wondering how many times we had bathed Coleman in that tub. Since he generally gets a bath each morning and then again before bedtime, a conservative estimate is that he has enjoyed over 8,000 “splash-fests” in that house. That’s a lot of water, soap, and shampoo! But, life, with its dust, dirt, and grime, demands that we cleanse ourselves over and over again. Wouldn’t it be great if we could be washed and cleansed so completely, effectively, and lastingly that we would never need to take another bath?

You know where I am going with this, don’t you? Sin stained us, defiled us, and covered us with guilt and shame. Lacking any means or power to purify ourselves, God sent His Son in His grace and mercy to offer a sacrifice powerful enough to take away our sin, the precious blood of the Lamb of the God (John 1:29; I Peter 1:18-19). In Christ, we have “washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). God has chosen and willed that in baptism (a submissive, passive, demonstration of faith in the working of God) our sin meets the Lamb’s blood. Though enacted in physical water, baptism reflects the reality of a spiritual purification (I Peter 3:21) in which our sins are washed away (Acts 22:16). This “spiritual bath” is so effective and complete that Christ’s blood continually cleanses us from all sin as we lead confessional lives before Him (I John 1:7,9). One sacrifice! One baptism! Praise God!

(Adapted from my BA bulletin article for June 14)