Baptisms and new beginnings

It’s ‘Five minute Friday’ time! It’s inspired by Lisa-Jo over at The Gypsy Mama.  The idea is that you write for five minutes flat on a topic, without worrying about whether it’s right or not.  It’s kinda fun!  Check out others’ interesting 5-minute posts on the topic by clicking on the button below.

I’m grateful to have Five Minute Friday to get back into blogging, as I have been too ill to write for longer than this for the past two weeks.

This is my best five minutes on ‘Path’:

GO
Last week I was privileged to witness baptisms in the sea.

 

We listened to them.

 

They all told their stories, their paths of finding God and life. It was a collection of different lives and journeys – tales of loneliness and being found; abandoned and gaining a family; sceptical and finding belief. They were so different, but the fragrance of Jesus wound its way around each story and I was struck again by the generous grace of God in reaching out to us.

 

Then we watched them and cheered with them.

 

They went down into the sea, saying goodbye to their old self, old habits, old life; rising up afresh, shocked with the cold and the exhilaration of the wet and the waves, hair messy and eyes open and mouths spluttering. There was such joy – on their faces, in our hands as we clapped them and our arms thrown up to God as we cried and praised.

 

STOP
Over to you:

  • When did you last share your story of faith?
  • Have you ever seen a baptism like this or been baptised? How did it feel?
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12 Responses to Baptisms and new beginnings

  1. Emma 16th June, 2012 at 7:33 pm #

    I love 5 min friday! So sorry you’ve been poorly – praying you feel better soon x

    • Tanya 19th June, 2012 at 10:56 am #

      I love 5 minute Friday too! It’s surprisingly freeing…
      Thanks so much for your prayers – I’m getting there…

  2. Charity 15th June, 2012 at 9:53 pm #

    I love the idea of a sea baptism! Probably the closest I have witnessed was a baptism in the Headwaters of the Mississippi River.

    • Tanya 19th June, 2012 at 10:56 am #

      That sounds like an awesome experience! The sea baptism was pretty cool too.

  3. Anna Wood 15th June, 2012 at 5:16 pm #

    Sounds amazing! Hope you recover quickly from the effort of going – but I bet it was worth it. I think the significance of water in religion is really interesting. In Judaism, we have the Mikva which is mainly used by women to purify themselves at a certain time of the month, but is also used for instance when people convert, or for other special occasions. Probably both from the same historical origin!

    p.s do you get my facebook messages at all? No pressure at all to reply, but just wondered!

    • Tanya 19th June, 2012 at 10:54 am #

      I’m so bad at replying to the facebook messages! I think i replied to the longer one, but not to the most recent one about your blog… sorry – I thought the blog looked great!

      I’d love to know more about Judaism – it’s really interesting. I feel like I should know a lot from the OT, but all the things you talk about sound so unfamiliar! I need educating! Is there baptism in Judaism?

  4. Shelly Miller 15th June, 2012 at 3:52 pm #

    So thankful for that generous grace that looks the same on all circumstances and life choices. Lovely photo too. I wondered where you were last week. Sorry you were sick and glad you are on the mend. Have a great weekend.

    • Tanya 19th June, 2012 at 10:52 am #

      Thank you – and for your good wishes. Blessings!

  5. Tracey 15th June, 2012 at 12:52 pm #

    I love having the privalage of witnessing someone’s baptisim. It always brings me joy. I feel like I’m welcoming another brother or sister into my family. Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience with us. It was a great 5 minutes! 🙂 Praying you have a wonderful Friday.

    • Tanya 15th June, 2012 at 1:02 pm #

      Yes – it really had that ‘family-feel’ about it! Thanks so much for stopping by.

  6. Wild Optimist 15th June, 2012 at 12:41 pm #

    What a great story to go with the prompt! I enjoyed your description of the baptisms, as I have never seen one of this kind before.

    I’m sorry your own path has been a little treacherous lately! I hope you are feeling better soon. In the meantime, I hope there are lots of little blessings on the path to make it brighter and better 🙂

    • Tanya 15th June, 2012 at 12:50 pm #

      Thanks – it was a really awesome experience to be part of.

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