Jocie's Baptism

Yesterday was a very special day at the Wilson home, and in the Kingdom of Heaven! She was baptized after church. About a month and a half ago we went to ACU for a sibling class the kids got to go to because of Miles. They had a blast. They actually got to play hide in go seek with ACU students. My kids thought they were supposed to get to go bowling, but the hide in go seek was much better in their opinion. After we picked up the kids we decided to walk around the campus a little bit. Randy and I had heard about the Jacob’s Ladder sculpture, but we had not seen it yet. Our whole family was in awe of the statue and the rocks that surrounds it. It’s one of the most amazing things we have in Abilene. We hung out there for a long time and Jocie decided that she wanted to be baptized at that place.
Randy and I thought it was a great idea, but we wanted to talk to Jocie more about baptism before we just did it. So, we both talked to her several times over the last month and a half. She wanted to talk about it all the time. She told us over and over that she wanted to get baptized at ACU. She was sure that was the place. She was sure that she needed to be baptized. She was sure that it needed to be done soon! She had such a passion to be baptized!
Right after she woke up yesterday she came up to Randy while he was still in bed and told him that she needed to be baptized. He woke me up and told me that we were going to do it after church. I could see that his mind was made up so I just started to think how we could do it successfully. During breakfast I asked her why she wanted to get baptized and she said in the sweetest and shy voice, “Because I want to be a new creation.”
On the way to church we went by ACU to make sure the little pool they have there was set up and in working order. We ran over to the pool and it looked so beautiful and perfect. Jocie was as thrilled as she could be.
On the way to church we called several people in our family to invite them to watch Jocie get baptized. It was short notice, but they were excited about the news. They all knew it was coming because it’s been Jocie’s main topic of conversation lately. I called Randy’s sister Sharon to invite her, but when I called she was having a panic attack because of the pain that she was in. Her nurse was there and giving her more medicine to knock her out. She begged me to pray for her. I was so sad to hear the fear in her voice. I did pray for her before I went into church.
After church I invited Becky and Brian to watch Jocie be baptized. Awhile back I had talked to Becky about her desire to be baptized and she told me that she wanted to be invited when the day came. I was so happy to hear that she was available to come. I know after church is a busy time for them, but they got to ACU before us! It made it very special that they came.
Becky and Brian were there, my Mom came, and so did Grandma Shirley and Harry. It’s such a beautiful place to be. There’s a huge statue of Jacob’s Ladder where angels are ascending and descending from heaven. To me it felt like we were standing under a porthole of heaven. We saw huge gold flakes around the water. I’ve never seen them there before. It seemed like it was real gold. The whole place just seemed like Holy Ground.
Randy stood with Jocie before our family and explained why she wanted to be baptized then I prayed over her. As I watched Jocie and Randy walk down into the water my heart felt so happy. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I was watching a Father and Daughter obeying the very Word Of God. Jocie was so happy to be baptized. She listened and did what Randy told her to do then he baptized her in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. She was all smiles when she came out of the water. It was very cute. We let her stay in the water for a couple of minutes while her very hot brothers and sister watched her splash in the cool water.
Randy’s Mom requested that we pray for Sharon before we all left. We all stood in a circle and prayed for healing angels to go to Sharon and heal her body completely. We commissioned angels to do their work in Sharon’s body. I think it was the perfect thing to do after Jocie’s baptism.
So, enjoy these photos of my beautiful Jocie girl on her special day! My prayer is that she seeks after God her whole life the way she went after being baptized! She is so pleasing to God! Before we left I told my Mom, “Hey, if she picked such a beautiful place to be baptized just think about the place she will pick to be married!” You know my Mom was grinning from ear to ear about that statement!