Osler's Razor

Last weekend's service at St. Stephens, which included the baptism of Benjamin Neil Willard, was one of my all-time favorites. I loved the spirit of it, and the message. Ben, of course, did his part, with a look of slightly puzzled contentment as the water was poured over him as he sat in the baptismal font.

I have been baptized twice. I was baptized as an infant. Then, when I was 16, I went through the confirmation process at my Congregational church. As I studied the Bible in preparation for my confirmation, I became convinced that what I really wanted was a believer's baptism, by immersion. Eventually, I approached the leadership of the church and asked for exactly that.

As one might expect, they were baffled by the request at first. No one had ever done that in the church, and they had no equipment for it, or knowledge of how to do it. To their credit, though, the Ministers (Roy Hutcheon and Jack Skiles) found a way for me to do it. They asked a Baptist church to do it, and studied up on the process. On the appointed day, I left in the middle of a softball game (my school newspaper staff v. our rivals from Grosse Pointe South) and was baptized again.

It was an overwhelming and moving experience. With it came a calm and quiet I have held ever since. It was, as much as anything, a washing of sorts, a bathing, the removal of all that the world might put on me that covers my true and real self, one form of God's creation.

As I washed the water pour over the infant, Ben Willard, I remembered that day. The feeling, though, I did not have to remember, because it has carried with me ever since. I too often ignore it, or obscure it, but it is always there, God's offer to cleanse me and heal me, and with that comes wholeness, and joy, and the feeling of calm we long for in storms.