1:27 - For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. 28 - Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord. 2:1 – She left him there for the Lord . . . .
These verses are from I Samuel. To give a little context, Elkanah has two wives; one is Peninnah who has a ton of kids and the other is Hannah who is barren and has no kids. Hannah promises God that if he gives her a child she will dedicate the child to the Lord. She does have a baby, Samuel, and does in fact stay true to her word; the above verses are her dedicating Baby to the Lord. Now in reading this I don’t know why, but infant baptism was what came to mind. Now we Baptists get a little antsy if not downright belligerent over the matter since generally speaking, and I stress generally, infant baptism was done so if the child should happen to die then they wouldn’t spend an eternity in Hell, because we all know unbaptized babies go to hell upon death (he says sarcastically). Now, don’t get me wrong that could very well be the case, but I really just don’t think so. Anyway I digress, here we have Hannah dedicating her baby to God. What a profound moment. This I think was and should be the original intent of anything to do with infant baptism, of course if you’re a good Baptist you just call it dedication. If this was the meaning of infant baptism, then how much more would it mean?! Of course you come into the hairy problem of maybe the baby was not meant for a life of God, of course you could also say that we’re all meant for a life of God. I am going in circles, but it just seems like a really intense thing to offer your child’s life of service to God, for all the days that he or she might live. I mean wow. I suppose what I am getting at is that if we have to have infant baptism and dedication, then this is what it should be about, dedicating one’s child’s life to God. Something to think about . . .
Kalos Elpis
Kelly M. Doolittle
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