"Proof of My Baptism"

Last weekend my sisters and I (and our spouses) were helping Dad clean out some things at his old house. My sister Jill found several very meaningful items which Mother had saved over the years: love letters that Dad sent to her while he was away from her serving in WW II, school papers and achievements from us kids, and other notes Mother took while on various vacations and trips over the years. Some of those items brought tears to our eyes as we read Mother’s thoughts, and of course we were touched to know how many of our childhood mementos she had saved and treasured.

In the midst of finding those items, my sister suddenly said to me, “Mike, do you want proof of your baptism?” She had found my baptismal certificate from 1951 when I was two years old. I looked it over, and of course I was touched to think of Mother keeping that document all of these years.

But is that certificate really “proof” that I was baptized? Not really. Even though I was a young child, my parents both told me the story of my baptism over and over again, until it became a part of my own “memory” and experience. My parents also followed up that baptism by teaching me the faith and making sure we were all a part of the church. Later they made it an expectation that I would go to confirmation classes, and they allowed me to make my own decision to have my baptism confirmed. And of course church camp at Epworth Forest was the place where my faith came alive – and I truly accepted my baptism and claimed that faith for myself.

Proof of my baptism? I have my proof from a life-long commitment to Christ, a love for the Church in spite of its weaknesses, and a sense of belonging to a family where the faith of the “baptized” is celebrated and lived. My mother did not keep my baptism certificate so that some day I would know I was baptized, she kept that certificate as a memento of one step along the journey of faith. She took her own vows seriously to raise us kids in the faith, and she provided us with a living example of such faith.

So, I will keep that baptism certificate as a memento of my parents’ love and faith. I don’t need any other proof.