I remember packing to come home from Iraq after my long deployment. We each had identical olive drab flight bags and duffel bags to pack our belongings in. Although each bag was tagged with our name, I wondered how I could easily identify my bags when so many looked similar. I looked around the base and found some bright yellow duct tape and some red ribbon. I marked each bag with the tape in the shape of a cross (the chaplain's insignia) and then tied red ribbon on the grip handles of each bag. That way when the bags came down the luggage line at BWI airport I could grab my bags quickly because they were marked as mine.
This Sunday Christians around the world will be celebrating the Baptism of our Lord and it is a time to remember our baptism and be thankful. It's difficult for many of us to remember our baptism because so many of us were baptized as children. I have some faint memories because I was baptized as a toddler. My grandma bought me an itchy wool suit to wear. I was baptized by pouring and water got in my eyes and I cried in front of the whole congregation. My parents were new the church and probably had little understanding of what was happening. I had little understanding of the event. Yet, it was the most important day of my life because I was marked that day as a child of God.
There are so many forces and so many people that tell us in so many places that we don't belong, we're not part of their group, we're not worthy of their attention. Yet our baptism is special because it marks us as God's very own. This Sunday let's remember our baptism and be thankful because each of us is marked as God's beloved Child. The lets live a life of hope letting others know they too are special children of God with whom God is well please when we live into the purpose that God intends for us.
