All the People were Baptized

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

All the People Baptized

Among the crowd bumping elbows

listening to the Baptizer's call

there at the edge of the water, on the brink

stood the Savior of the world.

There was a long line of strangers and friends

wondering and hoping that God would be there

God was there in their midst among them

and they could not single him out from them.

We stand in a long line of ancestors and family

pondering our own baptism as others submerge

we wonder where God is in all that we do

and fail to single out the Creator of the world.

God rides the bus with us and grocery shops

in every crowd and every hospital room

in every dark night and moment of terrible news

seen or unseen our God is there.

Every one chosen and beloved no matter

how ragged or finely dressed we might be

no matter where on the globe we find ourselves

seen or unseen our God is there.