You Won't Believe What I Saw

Recognizing an invasion

My life isn’t particularly exciting.

Most of my days are spent in meetings with various people, completing mundane tasks, and writing as much as I can in between it all. It’s all rather boring. Netflix isn’t going to write any documentaries about me anytime soon.

But not long ago, I had a day that wasn’t ordinary at all.

It was a day when I witnessed something so extraordinary that I lack the words to describe it. So I must borrow a few from the great Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor.

On a seemingly normal Sunday, I witnessed “an invasion of grace in territory largely held by the devil.”

A Divine Invasion

What am I referring to, you might wonder?

It was the baptism of six people.

Six people who changed the allegiance of their hearts to Jesus. Six people who have gone from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Six people who were dead and are now alive in Christ.

What is baptism if not the sign that a new king is reigning?

That a new allegiance has captivated someone’s heart?

And that King Jesus is on the move?

Whenever we see people saved into Christ, this isn’t an ordinary, domesticated act. It’s an intentional and invasive act of God in the heart of occupied territory—where Sin and Death reign. It’s a surprising act of rebirth—of divine live—in the shadow of death.

This is why baptism is often called a visible sign of an invisible grace.

Baptism is a sign that Easter Sunday’s resurrection wasn’t an aberration but the first act in a new age of God’s redemption of the world! And it’s a redemption that’s still unraveling today.

So the next time you see a baptism happening, don’t assume this is just another gathering during your week. That’s it isn’t anything special.

Because it’s not.

It’s an invasion of grace.