Lying in bed having a bedtime snuggle with Carter is our favorite conversational time. He rolled over last night and looked up at me and said, “Mommy? When can I get bath-tized?”
I smiled, “Who do you think gets baptized, Carter? What kind of people?”
He thought for a second. “Christians are bath-tized.”
Me: So, what does it mean to be a Christian?
Carter: It means that you give your heart to Jesus.
Me: And what does it mean when you give your heart to Jesus.
Carter: I don’t know. I’m confused about that part. I mean, how does He fit in there?
Me: Well, He doesn’t really fit in there like putting your foot in a shoe; it’s more like this. You love me, right?
Carter: Right.
Me: Well, I’m in your heart, yes?
Carter: Oh yes.
Me: Well with Jesus it’s bigger than that because Mommy is really walking around and is not actually living in your heart, but Jesus lives in your heart and changes your heart.
Carter: So I have to get bath-tized when I’m a Christian?
Me: Yes. It’s like an outward showing to everyone that you are a Christian.
Carter: How does everyone in the whole world know that you are a Christian?
Me: They can see it by your actions and words and life. Remember, Jesus changes you and makes you someone different than you were.
Carter: Or maybe that’s what the missionaries are doing; telling when I was bath-tized.
Me: Son, being bath-tized, er, I mean baptized doesn’t make you saved; asking Christ to change you is what saves you.
He thought about that thing for awhile and then he said, “Well, I need to do it then so that I will go to Heaven, so I’ll ask Him in my heart now and Daddy can bath-tize me too.”
Me, thinking that we aren’t exactly on the same wavelength here: Carter, what does it take to get to Heaven exactly? I mean, how do you get there?
Carter, without any hesitation: Oh, you have to climb this great big ladder and then God helps you off at the top and says, “You’re here!” and then you get a big castle where you live with all of your relatives, your aunts and uncles and sisters and brother and mom and dad and everyone. And there’s a party.
The Husband, who was lying on the other side of the bed during this snuggle fest, snorted and said, “I don’t know if that’s exactly Heaven if we have to live with all of our relatives.”
Carter: Then you should probably get un-bath-tized because that’s how it works.
Okay then. Maybe we'll wait a little while on that deal.
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