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Okay, so it's been another week, and I still haven't been on to write. Bummer for y'all. ;o)
BUT I have a good reason.
You see, Dad baptized Jared and Ricky last Sunday, and I just knew that if I posted the story without pictures you would all kill me.
And, now I have the pictures and all is well, and I can blog.
So, tally-ho then...
So they got baptized....
Yup. They got to wear their little white robes, and every chance they got they would smile for the camera, and they would hold up their hands, looking like they were ready to give a benediction, in order to show off their flowy sleeves. Hehe. Cuties....
Ricky had a mini-crisis when we started up the stairs to the baptistry's dressing room. You could see his eyes getting bigger every time we started another flight of stairs. Finally we reached the very top, and he peeked at the baptistry, with ALL THAT WATER, and he announced that he had to go to the bathroom.
So I went with him, and we made the "journey" back down to the basement, where the bathrooms were. I made him come with me, in the girls' room, so bad guys couldn't get him, because I'm strangely paranoid like that. Anyway, when he came out of the stall, his eyes were red and he was really quiet, and he half-whispered, "Ash, I don't want to get baptized today anymore." and his big eyes started to well up, and they brimmed when I asked him why. "They didn't tell me it was gonna be so high up! And they didn't say the baptizing water would be so deep!!" He washed and dried his hands while we talked. "Baby, you know you're safe up there. They wouldn't make it that way if it were dangerous..." He wouldn't hear it. His pink cheeks were streaked with these big, round, rolly, wet teardrops. Poor baby!
We made the trip BACK up the stairs...I tried to get Ricky to count the steps with me, I don't know, maybe so he'd see it wasn't so VERY high, but he wasn't biting.
When we reached the top, where we discovered a bathroom, Jared was already changed into his "getting baptized" shorts, and surveying the rack of white robes. I told Dad that Ricky was having second thoughts, and Dad took him into the hallway for a chat. Jared and I spent that time whispering about the clothes he was wearing, and taking pictures. I would say, "Jared, smile like you're getting baptized." and he would give me a very sweet smile, and I would say, "No, no, J-doggy...smile like, 'YAY! I'm getting BAPTIZED!!'" That did the trick...
Every now and then we would check on Ricky by stealing peeks into the hallway...his eyes were red and wet. We could hear Dad talking to him, telling Ricky that he wasn't going to force him to go through with it if he was afraid, and that he knows it's scary, but that Rick needed to remember that sometimes obeying Jesus is a scary thing....
Jared looked for a place to sit down, and found a bench inside one of the dressing rooms. We went in and sat down together. Jared whispered, "Ash, Ricky's scared. But he shouldn't be...there's nothing dangerous....it's a good thing." I told him we should pray for Ricky, and I asked him if he thought it would be a good idea to pray together. He said "Okay. But let's pray in our heads, quietly." So we did. We held hands in that tight little room and prayed--in our heads, of course--for Ricky to be brave.
When we were done, Jared said that when Rick came back into the room, he wanted to pray with him, holding his hands, "so that the Holy Spirit could work better". *heart goes mushy* I love Jared!!
When Ricky walked back into the room, Jared told Dad what he wanted to do, and he asked Ricky if he could pray for him. Ricky consented, and the two of them clasped each other's hands, and the "big people"--Dad, Nana, and I--set our hands lightly on their shoulders.
Outside, the congregation was taking communion, and Mr. Gibson was singing something with a pick-y acoustic. It was lovely. :o) And it made everything going on inside the dressing room seem that much sweeter. I only caught every other word Jared said, as he was whispering so he didn't disturb the service going on on the other side of the wall, but it was sweet.
We said "amen" and dad took the boys into the hallway for last-minute words and a blessing.
Then Dad heard the pastor making the segue to the baptism, and they all looked sharp. Jared stepped forward. Ricky went last...so he could see Jared do it first. Poor Darling! You can see in the pictures how freaked-out Little Ricky is...
It was a very sweet little baptism. Very baptismal. :o) Hehe.
Daddy retold the story about how the two boys were saved on his lap during a church service last year, one on each knee. When Bro. Glenn gave the invitation, and said "You can pray a prayer something like this: 'Dear God...'" and the two boys, each without any cue from the other, echoed each line of the prayer, out loud, in unison. Mom was there for it. I'm so glad she was there for it. It was one of the sweetest things *I've* ever witnessed. And their baptism, that next step toward the completion of that which was started on Daddy's lap a few months ago, was just as sweet.
And I've got the pictures to prove it!!!
1 comment:
oh, ashley! that is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing! Some of the pictures still aren't showing, but there's enough to pull on this ole mama's heartstrings.
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