Baptism of Christ
And when Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove… And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son…’
Jesus came down to our depths, into the chaos of humanity, to experience our death, symbolised in water of the River Jordan. When we are baptised we join in with this experience, we enter into that mystery. When we live as a child of God we find heaven open and we’re given the life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit, symbolised by the dove.
For Jesus and for us, being baptised is just the beginning. What follows is the rest our our lives living as God’s children.
Being baptised is serious life-changing business! It doesn’t mean life will be easy or simple. It doesn’t guarantee happiness or success as the world understands it. To be baptised and to be adopted into God’s family means something else:- it means that, no matter what, we are loved, we belong and we can have security about the future.