A friend of mine baptized his girlfriend this past Sunday and the entire church celebrated.

I remember a conversation that happened sometime ago with my friend about a girl that wasn’t a member of our church. I wasn’t the only person he talked to, but I did tell him that I trust him and that others may not like his decision. I also told him that she is not going to understand certain lingo in our church. She will not be familiar with our history, and that can be good and bad. Either way, she wasn’t going to immediately do the things that a member of our church would do, because she hasn’t been a part of it. Don’t be surprised when she doesn’t do what you expect. He told me that he laid out the boundaries of the relationship: they would go to our church, the relationship would be pure (and he defined it quite clearly), he was active in the teen ministry and he had hopes for campus ministry one day. When he said that she was fine with that and that she wanted to be active in church, the cynical part of me said, “yeah right.” You have to understand, my friend is in his early 20s, he’s an outgoing guy, very mature for his age, but he still has fun, very athletic, etc. In short, he’s what parents would consider ‘the perfect guy’.

He’s also had struggles in his life of all kinds. However, his mother was restored last year, his brother baptized a couple months ago – he is truly grateful for the wonderful things in his life. Again, the cynical side of me thought that this would be inviting trouble onto himself.

Don’t get me wrong, I had no problems with him dating a non-member at all. I didn’t doubt his heart one bit. I was more afraid of everyone else’s reaction to him.

In the end, though, I told him what I feared for him, I prayed a lot, and decided that if this was a mistake, that God would see him through it to teach him something he needed to know. Sure it felt funny, I had a lot of fears for my friend. However, I knew it wasn’t a sin and I had said my peace for him to think about.

Last night at our 40 Days of Purpose celebration, our minister read a portion of a letter she wrote to him two weeks previous. In it, she expressed her joy for what she was learning, the daily devotionals, and the love and acceptance she has felt from day one. She shared that she has never felt like a part of a family in church before and that she is truly grateful.

I was in MN, but I saw the pictures last night. The church truly celebrated at her baptism. As I always do to those recently baptized, I got to congratulate her last night and say, “welcome home.”

I get upset sometimes and I make things bigger than they really are. I still hurt over many things that happened to me and to others. No matter what, though, I am grateful that this family that so willingly opened their hearts to me, has opened their hearts to her as well. I am familiar with ‘lovebombing’ and I have been a part of it in the past. I believe this to be different because even two years later, folks still take time to express their love to me. I have gone from nobody to leader to teacher to regular member and this love has not changed. It gives me hope that she will experience the same thing.

It reminds me of the scripture that we will be known as disciples by the love we have for one another. It is an encouraging thought.