“In it a few-that is, eight people-were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.” 1 Peter 3:20-21

Lord Jesus, I wonder what Noah and his family were thinking when God closed the doors of the ark and the waters started raining down. I wonder what they thought when their boat, planted right in the middle of a plain, started to rock back and forth as the waters raised them up above the destruction of the flood. God was saving them through that water. He was lifting them above the destruction of the flood. He was preserving them by his grace and mercy. Jesus, I don’t think often enough about the saving grace of my own baptismal flood. Though I deserved to sink down beneath your angry frown, though I deserved to be flooded beneath the cup of your wrath, my baptismal flood lifted me above your anger and your wrath. My baptism lifted me up and saved me from the judgment that should have been mine. You saved me there in my baptism. O Spirit, remind me daily about the salvation that is mine through baptism. Remind me every day that my baptism is a life-saving buoy that was given to me once, many years ago. It is still something to which I can cling every day and not drown beneath your judgment. Help me to treasure it and hold it every day of my life. Amen.