Water of Life

OpenHouse this afternoon was a celebration of Baptism, with invitations for all those we've baptised since Michael and I have been in the parish and a very encouraging turn-out.
I talked about invisible labels (the cross traced on the forehead that proclaims "This person belongs to Jesus") and we passed round real ones with a similar message, but the real hit was when the children poured water into our paddling pool, and then we lit tea-lights to represent each child there...
The water, of course, represents God's love, which supports and surrounds us and enables us to shine for him. Whatever else they take away from the service, I think those children will remember that. They even came back to think about it again after tea!