Kimberly Majeski
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Preacher Girl School
  • Media/Publications
  • Speaking
  • About
    • Store
    • References
  • Stripped Love
  • Preacher Girl School Member Only
  • Webinar
  • Link Page

Beaches, Bikinis and Baptism

3/11/2012

5 Comments

 
Picture
We all start from somewhere, for good or ill. There is a place where the beginnings begin, a place where the story first unfolds like the soft petals of a rose; my beginning is by the sea.

Warm white sand melting away under your feet with each step, me in my yellow polka dot bikini and matching sun bonnet holding hands with baby sister who is dressed just like me, carrying pails and fluffy, soft terry cloth towels and nose coat to find the perfect place on the shore under the watchful eyes of  the Son. Sea shells and digging for crabs and sand castles washed away by the afternoon tide.  A place of laughter and pure joy where each hour passes into the next filled with more warm, sunshine goodness.

It is cotton candy and carnival rides, it is lobster tails and drawn butter, it is daddy throwing you into the pool and mama covering your nose with white goo every time she can get her hands on you. By her own profession you are part fish, more suited for the water than life on land.  Years later floaties are exchanged for hula skirts and tender skin kissed by the sun, it is hot tubs and star filled nights to hold a thousand dreams of what life will be.

Picture
It is before the beauty got banged up by the realities of this world. It was before I knew that marriages broke up, before he and she went their separate ways, it is before I ever knew the word cancer, before granny got sick and before anyone I loved left me for good, before I ever stood over the hole in the earth they call a grave. It was before I realized some endings were not happy, before I was aware that the hard, cold blows of this life could shatter paradise. It was before there was worry or fear, before anxiety attacks, before I wondered if God could really be good, it was before any brokenness entered the realm of my own little world.


Last night I gathered with loved ones to witness the baptism of a brother. As I listened to his words of life, words of redemption and grace, I thought about how I love these services of water and Spirit. I thought again about life, about the sometimes cruel circumstances and unforeseen disasters and then I thought about the power in that water, the water of God’s love.  The mystical and eternal water that has the ability to wash all our sins away, to call that which was not as though it was, to raise what is dead to new life again.

I remembered that my brother and I walk this life in the lineage of a host of people more fit for the water than land. It was our people who once walked through the sea as the armies of Egypt, the bondage of their past pressed against them; our ancestors who placed rocks into the Jordan as they walked back into their promise after years lost in the wilderness of their own making. It was our fore parents plagued with sickness and disease, bent over from the bruises encountered in this world who prayed for healing beside the pool called Bethsaida and our sister who though wrapped in her own shame found the living water of Jesus beside the well. For all of us, born of water and Spirit there are untold numbers in our heritage who came to Jesus down by the riverside and who have over the ages been baptized in his name.

And so, as winter melts into spring, as death gives way to life, let the waters flow. Let the healing water of grace flood our souls, wash us clean and make us new as we float knowing, life is hard but God is near and there is power in this water.
5 Comments
Natalie link
3/11/2012 09:26:45 am

Beautiful!! Love you...

Reply
Laura S.
3/12/2012 12:05:04 pm

Beautifully expressed and inspiring! Love you girlfriend!

Reply
Janette Majeski
3/12/2012 02:05:04 pm

Reminds me of the song we sing during baptism! --

Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river;
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God.

Very nice Kimberly..

Reply
hotels in the hamptons link
6/18/2012 10:28:36 pm

It is my great pleasure to visit your website and to enjoy your excellent post here. I like that very much.

Reply
Cape Cod waterfront lodging link
1/8/2013 03:28:53 am

I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this post. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe Today for Free Gift

    BLOG


    Picture

    Archives

    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    July 2010
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Anderson University School Of Theology
    Anne Lamott
    Ann Voskamp
    Baptism
    Chick
    Church
    Church Of God
    Confessions
    Corinth
    Doubt
    Downton Abbey
    Egalatarian
    Fab Five
    Faith
    Final Things
    Found
    Graduation
    Grief
    Growing Up In Church
    Hagaar
    Hebrew
    Holiness
    Holy Land 2012
    Jesus
    Joanna
    Julie And Norberto Kurrle
    Kingdom
    Landmines
    Laughter
    Leaving Church
    Lent
    Living
    Loss
    Lost
    Love
    Lydia
    Marie Howe
    Mary
    Mary Magdalene
    New Life
    New Testament
    N.T. Wright
    Olympics
    One Holy Catholic Apostoic Church
    One Thousand Gifts
    Paul
    Peace
    Preaching
    Prisca
    Rachel Held Evans
    Real Housewives
    Reconciliation
    Revelation
    Sabbath
    Sarah
    Seasons
    Sex Workers And Soccer Moms
    Staying In Church
    Strippers
    Survivors
    Susanna
    Theology
    Watch And Pray
    Wesleyan
    Wisdom
    Woman At The Well
    Women
    Women Clergy
    Women In Geneaology Of Christ
    Women In Ministry
    Zumba

    RSS Feed

© 2020 Kimberly Majeski
Photo used under Creative Commons from garussell11
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Preacher Girl School
  • Media/Publications
  • Speaking
  • About
    • Store
    • References
  • Stripped Love
  • Preacher Girl School Member Only
  • Webinar
  • Link Page