Thoughts on infant baptism from one who doesn't fully understand

As of late, Ada has developed quite the fondness for prayer. I think it's like a fun little game to her, but I, of course, don't discourage "the game." It's been very fulfilling to begin to talk to her about God as creator. Of course she doesn't understand the idea of creator, but I think she is beginning to understand that God is the one we thank. He is the giver of good gifts. So this is how it goes.

We are riding in the car, or playing at the park, or in the middle of dinner, and Ada says, "I want pray." And so we pray. I say, "Dear God..." and she repeats something of that sort, and then she names things that she wants to thank God for. It begins with people, all of the people who are important to her, and the list is long. All of the family on both sides, and then her different little friends, and, of course, Elmo. And I add words, such as, "thank you for Elmo. Thank you for giving us fun things that bring joy and delight to our life." Because I guarantee that Ada truly is very thankful for Elmo. She loves him so. And then we move on to inanimate objects.

We thank God for shoes and for water and balloons, anything that happens to be in sight. And then we start over with the people. God is using this little game in my life. He is using this to show me what a comfortable, easy life I live. I am thankful for shoes. That Ada's feet are protected. She has several pairs to choose from. Ada wants for nothing. Her stomach is not swollen with hunger, she is healthy and well with clean water to drink and money to pay for vaccines and medical bills. She is thankful for cars, she told me today, and I prayed and said that I was thankful for our cars also. That we have money for gasoline and that we have cars that run and take us to where we need to go.

I am thankful for quality care for this baby that is growing inside of me. I am thankful for medication to cut through the sickness and give me relief during this first trimester. The list is long, my friends. Ada has shown me that. There is much to be thankful for.

A while ago, a blogging friend of mine, Rachel, asked me to explain why we chose to baptize Ada, and if we will baptize this little munchkin on the way. That question has led me to re-visit all of the reasons why we chose to baptize Ada because you should know, my background is Baptist, not Presbyterian, so I am a believer in baptism after coming to know Christ personally. And we certainly don't believe that Ada already has a personal relationship with Christ. This new habit of praying together throughout the day, per Ada's request, has really caused me to think about what it meant when we baptized Ada.

Please know that I am no expert. In fact, before we baptized her, I searched the scriptures and I talked to our pastor and another guy on staff. I read lots of books, and I asked lots of questions, and still, questions remained. To be honest, lots of questions remained as Ada was baptized, but I stepped out on faith. I decided that for this season, the Lord has us in this church, and I will trust those in leadership, and we baptized her. In spite of those questions, there are things that I understood the baptism to mean.

I think it means things for us, the parents. It is a public declaration of thanks. We understand that to be parents is a gift, an undeserving one, and we are thankful that God is the author and creator of life. We are thankful that he created Ada's life and that he entrusted us with her. We confess in front of a congregation of God's people that we don't take that responsibility lightly. We confess that we are in no way capable of the task. We are unworthy, and we are only able to do this with Christ working his grace in us. And of course, it is a symbol of our handing Ada back to God. She is his; He is free to do what he wills with her. As her parents we are committed to knowing Him and making Him known above all else.

There is also this idea of obedience; this idea that we are commanded to baptize our children. That is where many of my questions lie. Again, it is not black and white to me. I have a heavy Baptist background, and it is hard for me to see a clear command in the scripture that we are to baptize our children. I understand where this argument comes from, but I am not sure that I 100% agree. Still, we chose to baptize Ada. Because for now, we are in a church that believes this is a command.

Because this post is getting quite long, I will post later about what we believe baptism to mean for Ada. I hope I have been clear. It is hard to write about this subject because it is one that I don't fully understand.