Every once and a while God brings somebody special into your life - somebody that has a unique way of making you look at things from an entirely different perspective.
Her name is Gabby. I don't really know where she came from. She just started showing up at church a few weeks ago. She sits with her grandmother on the second row to my left as I preach. She's short for her age, a little under developed physically and emotionally. She's loud. Very loud. But that's o.k. because she's beautiful . . . wonderfully beautiful.
She walks with a bit of a limp and smiles a lot. She's amazed by the simplest of things, and you are never quite sure if she has fully grasped what you're trying to say to her. Most people don't really know how to take her. If its on her mind, she's going to say it. Needless to say, her words are rarely seasoned with social graces. She will probably never make the cover of Vogue but she is beautiful . . . wonderfully beautiful.
She sits and listens intently as I preach, Sunday after Sunday about God sending His only Son to die for us. I talk about dying to self and living for Christ. I speak about gaining life by giving life away; and she listens . . . week after week she listens.
The other day her grandmother told me Gabby wanted to get baptized. I made an appointment to talk with her to make sure she was aware of what she was doing. I asked her if she knew for sure she was going to heaven when she died. She said she did. Then I asked if she were to die today and stand before God and He were to ask, "Why should I let you into heaven?" What she would say? she told me she felt sure that God would let her into heaven because she was good and helped her grandmother.
That was my opportunity. I told her how we all sin and how sin keeps us from going to heaven. I told her how there was nothing we could do to earn heaven. I told her that God was the only one good enough to deserve heaven. I told her how God loved her so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for her sins. I showed her in the bible how she could trust in His death, burial and resurrection and call upon the Lord and ask Him to save her. In the moments following that beautiful little girl called on a wonderful Savior and gave her life over to Him.
"Now, Gabby" I said, "If you were to die today and God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into heaven?' what would you say?" With a sweet, little sparkle in her eye, she looked up at me and said, "Because Jesus died for me and rose again!" I was elated.
"Now we can do the baptism thing," I said, "Since you have trusted Christ, its time for you to tell the whole world what Jesus did for you when He died on that cross, was buried and rose again. Sunday morning you are going to come before the church and stand in the baptismal waters. When you are lowered into the waters you will tell every one there that Jesus died for you and how you want to be associated with his death. Then, as you are lifted up out of the waters you will be telling everyone that Jesus rose from the grave and you want to be associated with his new life." She looked a little concerned, but agreed.
The next Sunday she was there with bells on, telling everyone how she was going to be baptized that day. I introduced her to Pastor Roger, the one doing the baptisms that morning, who took her away to get prepared.
When I finished my sermon I told the congregation about a special little girl that would be following the Lord in believer's baptism. The screen slowly raised and there stood Pastor Roger and that wonderfully, beautiful little girl. She was noticeably frightened, chattering nervously. Roger tactfully quieted her and said these words: "Buried with Him into baptism (he then lowered her into the water); raised with Him unto newness of life (raising her up out of the water).
It was then I realized how wonderfully beautiful that little girl truly is. As she came up from the water she looked up at Roger and asked, "Am I dead yet?" "Am I dead yet?"
She asked him if she was dead yet! It took a few minutes for it to dawn on me. She believed that following Christ in believers baptism meant actually dying. She had believed everything I told her in a very literal way! When that wonderfully, beautiful little girl walked down those steps into that baptismal pool she actually believed she was walking to her death. Following Christ to her meant giving her life away.
"Am I dead yet?" "No honey," said Jesus "I took care of that for you a long time ago. But now my dear, you are truly alive!"
Oh that we all had faith like that! The faith of a wonderfully, beautiful child.
