Okay, so after several weeks of "burning hotness" weather wise, we all gear up for yesterday's Baptism extravaganza here at GCC and wake up to 58 degree weather with impending thunderstorms on the prowl. Seriously, it had to be the coldest September 10th in history, but undaunted, we saddled up and headed to the water. Why? Well, here's a little of Elijah's story.About three months ago, Elijah approached me and said, "Hey, dad... you know that time of the year when everybody goes down to the water and gets dunked to say that they want to follow Jesus?" "You mean Baptism, Bug?" "Yeah that... uh... well, i'd like to do that." And so began the journey. This was totally his deal. We didn't prompt him, remind him or even tell him it was coming up. He just wanted to do it, so we began the process of helping him understand what it meant. Now that it's over, he's been proudly exclaiming to everyone, "yesterday, i told more than a thousand people that i'm going to follow God!"
On the way out to meet Rob Wegner (my boss and one of the pastors here at GCC), E started to get a little apprehensive. There were some 400 other people "wading in the water" yesterday, and i couldn't help wondering if he felt like some sort of sanctified lemming marching down to the sea. It didn't help that the torrential rainstorm that drenched us before we got into the water already had our core temperature about 10 degrees lower than normal, or that the water was therefore about another 10 degrees colder than last year. But holding on to Sami and I's hands, he bravely marched up to the lady announcing each name and told them, "I'm Elijah Kellen Magruder... and i want to follow God!" She read out, "Now entering the water... Elijah Magruder", and we began to walk in. I looked at Elijah shortly before we got to our "station", and his little lips were already blue (no kidding), but he was resolute. Laughing and gasping from both obvious joy and near hypothermia, he cluchted onto my side and held on as we marched out.
When we reached Rob, Elijah prepped his hands as they had shown him (hold your nose with one hand, and grab your wrist with the other), and looked Rob in the eye as Rob asked him if he had indeed decided to follow Jesus. Elijah answered with a resolute and direct "Yes Sir!", and then went under the waves. He came up laughing and hugging and shouting "I'm so full of joy!!!", which is totally funny, because we have never tried to super-load any of those words, emotions or expectataions, but out they came nonetheless.
We sloshed to the shore, were greeted by tons of family and friends in the "Hug Zone" (a cordoned off area where people meet the emerging dunkees), and then promptly went to dry off and head home.
We finished off with pizza, sparkling grape-juice and a cake that Sami baked specifically for the occasion, which Elijah decorated himself.
It was a VERY good day, and, as Mark Beeson joked, with the torrential rain, being soaked before entering the water, and then being dunked beneath it, we actually experienced simultaneously all three "common" modes of Baptism at the same time: Immersion, Sprinkling and Pouring!
