To live daily in baptism is to be able live in a new world, the new world Jesus Christ gives us. In our baptism we died to sin and rose to new life. Jesus takes us into his new world where the old powers of evil lose their grip.
A friend opened the February 2008 issue of the Good Housekeeping for me to read, and there on pages 87-88 was a powerful example. It was even more powerful for me because I had a personal connection.
The story was one of forgiveness where you wouldn’t expect to find it – in a teenage driver’s carelessness resulting in the death of a young husband and father. In the blink of an eye so many lives were changed, among them a young mother and her infant daughter’s. “The best person I ever met” was the way this young mom describes her loss.
But she decided in the painful weeks that followed that she would not raise her daughter in a world where her anger was the primary focus. So when the teenage driver owned up to her grave mistake, this young widow decided to open the door of her heart to forgiving her. Instead of the driver serving prison time, the driver and the wife of the man whose death she caused began telling their story – together – to other teenage drivers. And each time the tears flow. And, dare it be said, that maybe even some healing occurs. Amazing. Find the magazine; read the story.
Here is a new world, really it is, where hatred, anger, and grudges do not rule. These old powers have lost their deadly grip. They are replaced by Jesus’ new world where forgiveness lives and peace begins to dwell. Oh, don’t misunderstand, this is not some Camelot where these qualities come easily and then vanish quickly as well. The forgiving may even be like Jesus described it, “Seventy times seven” times, or having to do it more times than you can count. But in the end, the real end, there is a new experience of the kingdom of heaven. People get something of God’s new world.
That’s baptismal spirituality: the old dies, and in Christ the new arises. The old powers of hate and looking for revenge lose their grip.
This story of forgiveness touches my own heart. You see, I had the funeral for that wonderful young man. I did, one cold December day. I have seen the incredible pain and sadness his death brought. What a beautifully different day this one: that a Good Housekeeping article would become my own reminder of one more time God keeps his promises. The promises anchored in baptism.
