Car Talk

OK, I'm not talking here about that great show on NPR where Click and Clack give callers advice about their cars and life. I'm talking here about the conversations I have with my kids on the way home from church.

As often happens in a pastor's family, there are normally two cars in the church parking lot that belong to me and Kristi at any given time. Rare is the day that we don't take two cars to church, and often my kids get to come to church twice on one Sunday (!), so...there is plenty of car time for me with them.

And believe me, I learn plenty of things on those 12 minute trips.

Yesterday, my 6 year old explained infant baptism for me.

I'm serious.

We were on my way home, and I was asking them what they learned in Children's Worship, and they were talking about the parable they heard about the shepherd who goes to rescue the one lost sheep because he loves the sheep so much. "And Jesus is the shepherd Daddy, and he will always be with us because Jesus is in our hearts, and just like the shepherd he will always find us no matter what, because he loves us." That's how it went.

And then Lucy asked a great question, that was simple and profound at the same time. She said, "Daddy, did you invite Jesus to be in my heart or did I?"

And the mysterious yet wonderful answer to that question is...YES.

As believers in God's covenant of grace, we know that God's covenant extends from generation to generation. God said to Abraham "I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." (Genesis 17) Those "offspring" include you and me, as Jesus opened the doors to Gentile types like us. And just like in the "old days" where circumcision was given as a sign of that generational faith, baptism is our spiritual circumcision (Colossians 2 :11ff), a sign that we desire God's covenant blessings from generation to generation. For those of us who have had our Children baptized into the faith, did we ask Jesus to come into our kids' heart? Yes.

But does that mean that they have no say in the matter? No. For each of us as we grow up also have a decision to make. Will we allow Jesus to be our Lord and Savior? As he wrote to the church men and women of Laodicea in Revelation, will we answer the knocking at our heart and let Jesus in to dine with us? (Rev. 3:20) We each have choices to make whether we let Jesus reside with us, or whether we cast him aside.

Do we ask Jesus in into our hearts on our own then? YES as well.

It is one of the wonderful mysteries of our faith, isn't it?

In our Presbyterian tradition, it is Confirmation that signals the time when kids become adult Christians, taking on the responsibilities of their life of faith. But whenever a child makes that decision, we celebrate it and let them know the joy with which God welcomes their adult profession.

Let's be in prayer for our 58 confirmands at Crossroads, and our kids everywhere, that the invitation that was extended to Jesus long ago to live in our kids hearts and lives, may be made into a personal invitation by each child to reside with the Shepherd himself.

Amen.