Baptism Memories

My younger sister Jackie is getting baptized tomorrow. I’ll be there.

 

She only wants close family members because she says she’s going to be an emotional mess and might blubber. She doesn’t want witnesses to such an unsightly display of emotion: “I’m not usually emotional, you know.” (Yeah, I know. In fact, like me, she’s pretty stoic when it comes to displaying strong emotions, a legacy of our mother’s.)

 

Her confession that she’ll probably bawl made me laugh. Because I had lots of witnesses to my soggy (because of tears) adult baptism on September 14, 1999.

 

The John Ford Chapel at the hospital where Carolyn Kelley was a patient at the time was very  small: I don’t think 100 people could fit into it. But it was full on the afternoon I was baptized because many of the people who worked at the hospital (the ones who knew me because I had been there for months serving De and Carolyn) wanted to attend. So did Terry Rioux (De’s biographer) and a couple of other close friends.

 

So I had plenty of people witnessing as I dissolved into tears that soaked the front of my blouse. In fact, Pastor Grant–who officiated–told me immediately afterward, “If this ceremony had gone on another 20 seconds, you would have had me in tears.”

 

When I looked out at the guests, I noticed that most of them were in tears, too. So it was actually wonderful. It was a moving experience… as it should have been!

 

My family was in Washington (my dad, two sisters and their kids) when I was baptized, so they couldn’t be there, as I’d made the decision just five days previously and wanted to do it fast. (My book Purposeful Christianity: Sharing the Verve and Value of the Prince of Peace, has the full story. I think you can still get it at Amazon. If you can’t and want to read it, let me know and I’ll send you a copy via email. FREE!)

 

Here’s the astounding kicker: I hadn’t been to church in thirty years. But when I started getting a definite ethereal invitation–nothing audible, just a gentle, sweet invitation from on high (“You need to be baptized” in those exact words!) that stirred my spirit  several times a day for a couple of weeks, I called to ask Dad if I’d been baptized as a child. I figured if I had, I could ignore the invitation and carry on as always. (What a lame brain! I could no more have ignored that invitation than I could flap my arms and fly to the moon! It was so love-filled and inviting. It was an invitation, not a command!)

 

When Dad said he didn’t remember if I’d ever been baptized, I knew I had to do something about the invitation. I wasn’t accustomed to getting disembodied invitations from the divine!!! Ya know?!

 

So I went to Pastor Grant and asked, “Do I have to declare a Christian denomination to be baptized?”

 

He said, “No.”

 

I started to cry right then and there.

 

“Good!” I told him. “I want to be baptized! I don’t want it to be a church-y thing. I just want Jesus to know I get it and I’m His!”

 

Grant grinned (I’m sure despite himself) and said, “You’re ready!”

 

I said, “I sure am! Where–and how soon?”

 

He asked if I wanted to be sprinkled or dipped.

 

Decisions, decisions.

 

He said, “If you want to be dipped, we’ll have to do it at a church with a baptistry fount. It will be a couple of weeks or more to arrange something like that. But if you just want to be sprinkled, we can do it right here on Tuesday in the John Ford Chapel.”

 

That settled it. I wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. So Tuesday it was–just five days in the future.

 

I was primed and ready!

 

Jackie is being dipped–er, submerged, I guess it’s called. Her son, Phil, may do the honors. I know she’d like that, if he’s up for it. I know he gets embarrassed easily when he’s front and center for events. But he should just suck it up, buttercup, because–hey, this is HER baptism, and it should go the way she wants it to!  (UPDATE: I asked Jackie if she’d like me to videotape her baptism, expecting her to scream, “NO!”  But she didn’t!!! She said yes! I love it!)

 

I’m very happy for her. I bought her a card and a small gift to commemorate the occasion. I know I would have loved to have received something like that when I was baptized…but my family didn’t consider it a big enough deal back then to send me anything–even though I asked, point blank, for baptism cards!!!–so I bought myself a card and something else to commemorate the occasion.

 

I remember Dad saying one time, “God, I hope you never get religion!”  (’cause I was such an “evangelist” about everything else that I was crazy about…)

 

My parents were scared to death for me when I moved down to Hollywood, fearing that I was such a naive Pollyanna that I’d fall in with the wrong crowd.

 

Instead… I fell in with DeForest Kelley…  and after he passed away, I started going to church and studying the Bible…

 

My parents had nothing to worry about! I was in good hands (human and divine, as it turned out!)…