“The sacrament is
an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Dying in Christ
we rise in Him, rejoicing in the sweetness of our hope … Lila Dahl, I baptize
you baptize you in the name of the Father. And of the Son. And of the Holy
Spirit.” Resting his hand three times on her hair. That was what made her cry.
Just the touch of his hand. He watched her with surprise and tenderness, and
she cried some more. He gave her his handkerchief. After a while he said, “When
I was a boy, we used to come along this road to pick black raspberries. I think
I still know where to look for them.”
She said, “I know where,” and the two of
them walked across the meadow, through the daisies and sunflowers, through an
ash grove and into another fallow field. There were brambles along the farther
side, weighed down with berries. She said, “We don’t have nothing to put them
in,” and he said, “I guess we’ll just have to eat them.” He picked one and gave
it to her, as if she couldn’t do it for herself. He said, “We could put them in
my handkerchief. I’ll hold it.”
“You’ll get stains all over it.”
He laughed. “Good.”
She spread it across his open hands and
filled them, and then she tied the corners together. Fragrance and purple bled
through the cloth. He said, “I’ll carry it so it doesn’t stain your clothes,
but it’s for you, if you want it. You can steal my handkerchief. If you want to
remember. The day you became Lila Dahl.”
She
said, “Thanks. I figure I’ll remember anyway.”
Did you experience baptism as a form of becoming? Open yourself to God, and let God help you become even more fully the person God longs for you to be.
Reading from Marilynne Robinson Lila (London: Virago, 2014), 87-8.
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