Promise kept

 

Feliz Dia de la Resurrección!  

Happy Day of the Resurrection!

This is the day every Christian hopes for, waits for, expects to happen.  It is what gets us through Holy Week, especially Good Friday.  All through the Bible, a promise is made:

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Deut. 31:8

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Joshua 1:5

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Matt. 28:5

 And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matt. 28:20

But will the promise come through? Most of our kids have suffered abuse, rejection, abandonment, disappointment, and promises forgotten.  Walking through Holy Week, especially the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday is, for me, sobering and heart breaking.  How much more so is it for our kids who have experienced some of those stations themselves? Every year, we anxiously and eagerly await Easter morning to proclaim with relief and joy, "Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!" Will it come this year?  Can we trust in the promise when we have been betrayed in this world so many times?

At the Children's Home, we not only celebrate that but also baptism when we welcome children who have so chosen into the body of Christ. One of the newly baptized gave a testimony on Palm Sunday recounting an experience with their baby brother.  The older sibling, at 11 years of age, was responsible for the younger siblings and the household.  The 15 day old baby fell out of a hammock and stopped breathing.  The sibling ran and picked him up.  The family did not go to church nor read the Bible.  This 11 year old, who knew nothing about God's promise, prayed for the life of the baby.  The baby is now in our preschool and very bright and as cute as any child could be. The sibling ended the testimony by saying, "I realized God was with us." The child knew nothing about God except He was there.  Is there.  Will always be there.  

That is the promise.  No matter what, God is with us.  Jesus suffered death by crucifixion and rose again to be with us to the end of the age. "'For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ' Romans 8:38-39.  Not even ignorance of Jesus nor disbelief will separate us from the love of God. 

It is with great joy I share evidence of the Risen Lord in the pictures from today.

The service begins in the church and then we process to the cancha where the baptisms occur

Richard blesses the baptismal candidates and then the water. The youngest, Sofia, bravely goes first.  (It was really cold this morning!)

Sofia, Paola, Ismael, Darwin, Angie are fully immersed 

They are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ's own forever

Let us welcome the newly baptized!

For these children and for all of us, the promise made has been kept!

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

The Lord is risen indeed!