"Remember your baptism and be thankful"

For our worship service last night we did had a time where people could remember their baptisms. As people came forward and I touched them with water, I came to the realization that one of the people in worship was someone I had actually baptized. Suddenly I was remember the baptism as well. It was interesting to look back then and think about what that baptism has meant to me as well as to the person I baptized. It made me realize how communal baptism really is. We often talk about that at infant baptisms, that we as a community are all taking part in the baptism and in the commitments that follow, but I also think it is true for adults, as was the case in this baptism. By being the person doing the baptism I had the chance to help initiate a person into the community of faith. I have since had a chance to help this person on their faith journey, to walk with them through struggles and to see them grow in their faith. I have been changed by the sacrament just as much as the person I baptized. I think there is something holy and sacred about that. I think the sacraments are meant to be transformational and that this transformation cannot simply be contained to the person receiving them, but that anyone who comes into contact with them is affected.

So my thoughts for the week are this: how have you been affected by someone else's baptism? How has your life been changed by seeing a change in others? When have you been able to be John the Baptist, and be a position to create a change in another and in turn be changed yourself?