Edmund, Lucy, and Extending Grace

I have been watching Prince Caspian like every night this week.

Movie channels keep playing it at the same time every night and I tend to like having something playing in the background - a habit I picked up from a college roommate and a life of younger siblings.

In this story, Peter and Susan are told that they will not be returning to Narnia again. Reason is, they've lost their child-like faith. Its not that they are "too mature" to be there - its that they don't believe the way Lucy and Edmund do.

And then that brings me to something else. Lucy, everyone gets. She's the child-like one who ALWAYS believed even when criticized for it and told she was being childish. Everyone knows why she gets to return to Narnia.

But Edmund? He had the most shocking transformation between the first and second books. And in Prince Caspian, he comes off as a thousand times more spiritually mature than either of his older siblings. Between him and Lucy develops a bond that transcends earthly brother/sister status. They are kindred spirits who truly recognize the grace that has brought them to Narnia. And Edmund's transformation and wisdom comes from the acceptance of a gift that he truly understands as such - because his sin was so obvious and so big by our standards that when forgiven of it, he knows he is not worthy of it but desperately wants it.

That is one kind of Grace - the grace of God.

The other one on my mind is that between Christians.

I've been trying to figure out how to make a case for infant baptism. Its not that I think later baptism is wrong - in fact, I think it is just as good, if not better. However, there is a statement that I am making in having my son baptized that I WANT and NEED to make. And it is an expression of my faith that I would want to bring my son into the covenant that I share with God.

People may find me theologically incorrect here - even though I believe that the OT gives me a case to support me. Thing is, I don't really care - whereas they care way too much (in my opinion). Baptism, to me, is simply an expression of faith. It is not a mandatory expression, it is simply one of many. Like fasting or volunteering in your church or being a missionary. It is not required for salvation.

And the argument that "Jesus did it, so should we" doesn't hold, either. If that were true, we should all go out into the desert with no food for 40 days and hang on a cross for the world's salvation.

I'm willing to give grace on the subject, but I sure am tired of people discrediting my own baptism or the theology behind my having my son baptized. It really is not that big a deal.