The eternal truth of God guides our lives today.

This morning we are blessed to participate in the baptism of Margaret James Lassiter, the 4-month old daughter of Emily and Ryan.

Four moths is a very sweet age. At four months, babies are becoming more and more aware of the people around them. Margaret definitely knows her mother and her father’s faces and voices.  Ryan says she knew when Emily had stepped out – for the first time – to attend a parent’s meeting at their older daughter McKenna’s school.

And at four months, babies remain very pure of heart. A baby at that age is always right.  When they cry, they are either hungry, wet, tired or in pain of some sort.  Our pediatricians taught us that you cannot spoil a baby at that age. If you think the baby is just manipulating you or something, you’re wrong. They are always right.

That’s going to change, and pretty soon. Margaret will learn to manipulate her environment. It’s subtle. It’s gradual. But soon her parents won’t be as worried about what might happen to her if they step out of the room as what she might do when they step out of the room.

Which raises an interesting question. Are we inherently good, or not? One look at Margaret would lead me to say yes, absolutely she is good. The rest of us are a bit more complicated and soon she will be too. That is of course a classic question that philosophers and theologians have wrestled with over the centuries, but I’d like to approach it from a different angle.

As Margaret grows and develops she will naturally grow more aware of her own timeline.

You think at first it’s really long, then the farther along you go the more you appreciate how short it is.

Our task this morning is to raise Margaret up to the God who created her and to celebrate her as much more, infinitely more, than her physical being.  We are celebrating her as a beloved child of God on this eternal plane.

And as she grows and learns and finds her way through life, our hope is that she will ever be aware of her place in God’s grace, and pursue and develop that eternal perspective to guide her daily life.  That’s not always easy or straightforward and the stakes are high.

After Jesus taught his disciples about the danger of what I called passive sins, ignoring God’s call to love our neighbors as ourselves, he tells them that false teachers would wish they had a millstone around their neck. Then he tells them that they have to forgive people who sin against them “70 x 7 times,” which means every time. All of that sounds impossible to them, so they make the right request, “Increase our faith!”

Jesus replies that they need just a little, and that they need to remain humble about it. But still, we need it.

Margaret’s parents both love outdoor sports. They hunt and fish, and I’m told that Ryan is they guy to see if you want some frog legs, or if you want to experience serious frog-gigging.  When we met last week he told me something very beautiful.

He said he loves to take his daughters out into the woods with him when he goes hunting.  McKenna is 4, Anna Claire is just 2, so they can only handle a 4/10 so far. Seriously, he likes to get them out into the woods to share their love of it. He said he doesn’t know yet if the older girls will take an interest in hunting, they may or may not, it is up to them. But he hopes and expects they will at least love the woods and being outdoors. That is a tremendous gift and some great parenting.

In a similar way, I hope Ryan and Emily will continue to raise their children to know Jesus. It is anybody’s guess as to what that might mean for their work and family decisions, but they will at the least know they are beloved children of God, the same God who created the woods and the animals created them in his image. And that as his children, they are to be guided all their days by his truth and his love, to hold a high regard for their eternal place with God to guide them in the gritty business of life and all its decisions.

You see it’s not a matter of whether we are essentially good or bad, it is that we are continuously faced with the rather stark limits of our lifespans, our timelines. It is the call of almighty God the raises our eyes to the eternal. We are to do the very best we can with the time we have, led first and foremost by that eternal perspective.

Mom and dad will guide, support, encourage her, but eventually Margaret will embrace every aspect of her life and take responsibility for it. We all want the very best for her eternally but also with her every step and breath. Mom and dad will teach her to hunt and to engage the outdoors, and they are her primary source for learning about God.

And we will be there for her. That is why we exist, to grow in our knowledge and love of God through Jesus Christ, pass our faith along to the next generations and bear witness to Jesus in our lives and through us to our community.

AMEN!