Listen

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:1–4

Think

When I was in elementary school, I heard one of my Sunday school teachers talk about seeing her husband after he got baptized.

“I can’t explain it,” she said. “There was just something different about him. It was like he was glowing.”

I knew she didn’t mean literally shiny, but that’s the picture I had in my mind, and I was mesmerized. I got baptized when I was 10. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I loved Jesus, sure. But I think I did it mainly because it seemed like the next step. I expected to be especially shiny when I came out of those baptismal waters, too.

Now I know that baptism is not a singular, independent event. Baptism is a daily choice. We choose to be buried with Christ—over and over again. That hard death is what brings us peace every day. Because we baptize our journey in Christ, we get to see the world glowing with its fullness of resurrection.

Lesley-Ann Nix

Pray

Gracious God, baptize all of my steps. I want to walk with you today, and I give you thanks for eyes that see the hope of the baptismal waters everywhere. Amen.

Go

Breathe. Breathe deeply and feel the spirit of life within. Know that the Giver of life is with you, making you alive by the Spirit that is still at work in all of creation.

Then walk. Walk confidently into your day, aware that the life-giving Christ is alongside you with every step.