My youngest son, Elijah, was baptized on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 by Mason Brown, our 12Stone student resident. It was a true answer to prayer. To be honest, one that I didn't ever think I would see. But God is bigger than me! Not only did Elijah come forth publicly to profess his faith in Jesus Christ, but God taught me not to put Him in a box. Nothing is impossible for God. Nothing!
See, Elijah has ASD. He is on the autism spectrum, originally diagnosed with Asperger's. He is high functioning, meaning that he can speak and walk and take care of himself, for the most part. He does, however, have some intellectual and processing issues that cause him to not fully understand what other teenagers understand. He has a limited vocabulary and can't always understand what is being said to him or around him. He doesn't understand a lot of how the world works and is perfectly happy to sit and watch WWE for most of the day. It is because of these, well, limitations, that caused me to figure he would never understand enough about baptism to want to do it. Shame on me.
Elijah accepted Jesus Christ as his savior many years ago after a conversation with his dad. He began taking communion shortly thereafter, again after a conversation to make sure he understood what it meant and why we do it. Did he fully understand all that comes with a decision for Christ? I don't know. But Jesus said you simply needed "faith like a child" and that would be enough. He definitely had that! And ever since this decision, I have prayed that he, along with my other boys, would make the decision to be baptized. To let everyone know that they follow Jesus and are not ashamed.
We see baptisms at church quite often. We talk about it, what it means and why people do it, but we never pushed. We always wanted it to be his decision. We knew that he would do it when he was ready and that it would be a prompting of God, as it should be. However, though I am ashamed to admit it, I never really thought Elijah would do it. Not only because I didn't think he would understand, but also because I knew of Elijah's "quirks" associated with his ASD. He wouldn't want to be wet in his clothes, and he would want someone else to push him under the water. I continued to pray but deep down had a pessimistic attitude of it ever happening.
Shame on me again! Because one Wednesday (Sept 21) after H12 (youth program), he came home and told us that he wanted to be baptized. To say we were excited is a complete understatement! We talked to him about it a bit and thanked God for the answer to prayer. In addition, I was also led to ask God for forgiveness. I had limited my idea of what God could do. I had put Him in a box. I had doubted that He could get through to someone like Elijah. I was convicted.
God can do anything and everything that He chooses to do. It is God's desire, according to the Bible, that everyone be saved. Of course He can work within Elijah and lead him to baptism. He met Elijah right where he was and spoke to his spirit in a way that Elijah could understand. Of course He can! How could I have ever doubted??
I have asked forgiveness and God has granted. What an amazing testimony of God's goodness and grace! There is nothing that God cannot do. Don't forget that!
A special thanks to Alex Otto and Mason Brown, along with other youth leaders, who allowed God to use them in Elijah's life.
Funny side note....After H12 on this Wednesday night, I was driving Elijah home. I told him that I noticed he didn't go all the way under the water. (I expected that just because I knew he would be wary of it.) "I know. Epic fail," he said. I proceeded to explain to him that it was NOT an epic fail. It wasn't the water that was important but the state of his heart. He didn't have to go all the way under the water to show he is a follower of Jesus. He just had to get into the tank. The willingness of his heart to proclaim his faith was all that he really needed. The rest of it was an outward symbol to show others. It still counted. Once he understood that, he felt better.
I just love him!
