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Our
daughter Angel turned eight years old in July and we planned
her baptism on the weekend nearest to her birthday, and as
her father I had the honor. My wife, Sumara, also could have
performed the baptism, but she was kind enough to allow me
that once-in-a-lifetime privilege.
We live
in Sequim, Washington, an amazingly scenic place with the
towering Olympic mountains running as far as the eye can see
to the south and the expansive blue waters of the Puget
Sound inland sea to the north. We
had
all agreed that a baptism in nature, surrounded by all the
beautiful creations of God would be perfect. The only
problem was there were no lakes nearby and the
Puget Sound water temperature, even in mid-summer, hovered barely over
50 degrees. But we had a plan!
There was a
tidal estuary near our home that was very shallow. We
thought perhaps it might heat up enough during the long
summer days to be tolerable for the few minutes of a baptism
by immersion. With that thought in mind we made the 1½ mile
hike down the beach two weekends before the scheduled
baptism to check out our theory. It was a hot, lazy summer
day, and to our joy we found the water in a small section of
the estuary right at the end of a long sand spit to be
comfortably tepid.
Now that
we knew our spot definitively, we sent out invitations to
family and friends and timed our hike down the beach to
arrive at the sand spit at high tide.
But we
were in for a rude awakening. Unlike the day we scouted the
area, the day of the baptism was partly cloudy and there had
not been enough solar exposure to heat up the estuary. The
water was ice, and I mean ICE cold! I could barely stick my
toe in it without having to pull it back in pain. I'm a
wimp when it comes to cold water.
Several
people had brought their cameras to record the special event
and everyone was still finding a place to sit on the sand
dunes when I called Angel to come stand by the waters edge
with me. “What do you think?” I asked sticking my toe in
the water.
She stuck
hers in next to mine and instantly had a shocked look on her
face. It was really cold! Without speaking to anyone else
we decided to be quick and waded out up to my knees, which
was as deep as I could tolerate. I held Angel's right wrist
in my left hand so she could bring her right hand up to hold
her nose as she went under the water and she rested her left
hand on my forearm. I held my right hand to the square and
after saying her full name, I spoke nearly the same words
Yeshua did 2,000 years ago when he baptized his wife Miriam,
the same words I had said when I had baptized my wife, and
the same words she had said when she baptized me, “With
the purity of your heart as the witness of your soul, I
immerse you in water that you will come forth with a greater
love of God, to ever guide you upon the path of light. In
the name of Elohim, so be it.”
It was a
perfect baptism; Angel's face just glowed with joy. But it
was also very quick because of the cold water. Angel and I
were back on shore before most people had even realized what
had just happened. In fact, more than one witness was a
little miffed at having walked 1½ miles on the beach and
looking at another 1½ miles to get back, without even having
seen the baptism because we did it so fast, before everyone
had been situated and prepared.
The
bigger concern soon became apparent: in our haste, with the
half dozen cameras present, as far as we knew, only
Kristelle, one of our adult daughters, had managed to snap
any pictures of the actual baptism. Our main concern at
that point was that we wouldn't have many pictures for Angel
to remember her Baptism by, but it grew into a disaster when
a day later, Kristelle accidentally erased all the pictures
on her camera!
A
couple of weeks later we got an email from Shaina, another
adult daughter, who lives in Seattle. She left to return
home before we had a chance to review her pictures. Unaware
that there was not a single picture of the baptism, when she
had time, she emailed us copies of all the pictures she had
taken that day. As we scrolled through the email looking at
the photos of people walking down the beach, picking
flowers, playing with seaweed, and posing for pictures, we
were overjoyed to discover a single shot of the Baptism.
But we quickly noticed there was something odd about it,
different than all the other pictures taken that day; and it
was something wonderfully odd!
Looking at the picture, our eyes popped open a little wider
and we looked at each other amazed. Were we really seeing
what we thought we were seeing? There was a distinct aura of
light around Angel. It radiated from her, almost blindingly
intense right over her body. It was easy to imagine that we
were looking at the body of a true angel. I was holding
her, but none of the effect was showing on me even though we
could see a faint rainbow arc three feet away from Angel's
body. In our minds that ruled out a problem with the
camera. Plus all of the other pictures Shaina had taken
that day were perfectly normal. The fact that it was
a digital image also ruled out a problem with the film.
Another very unusual effect you can see is that the shadow
of Shaina taking the picture was interrupted by the intense glow of Angel's aura in
the apex of her heart area. You can see a bit of Shaina's
shadow on Angels face, but it is completely absent over
Angel's body and not visible in the water behind her aura,
even though her aura is translucent!
Noting all
these unique things, we
knew we were looking at the recording of a very miraculous
moment of divine energy, on a very special day, in the life
of a young lady who is truly an angel walking among us, and
one that surely brings an amazing light to the world.
We were
reminded of the account in the Revelation Bible of the
baptism of the Apostle Cephas, “And Cephas came up out of
the water all aglow even as Miriam had been when Yeshua
baptized her.” Vivus 18:12. That is a certain and
perfect description of our daughter Angel on the day of her
baptism, and we hope she will carry that heavenly glow all
of her life.
Namaste,
Jesse &
Sumara Love
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