September beach days and skies are the best. This afternoon I took a nap, and when I woke up I called my husband to see where he was and what he was doing. He was over at the CGC. There was a Lutheran Laymen’s League meeting happening over there and they’d asked him if he’d come and give a devotion. As soon as he said that I remembered. He’d told me about the LLL group already.

The kids were watching Finding Nemo or some other movie that looked like it. I asked if they wanted to go down to the beach. We’re in those days now where the weather starts to turn and the beach days slip away before you realized they were over. Dad came down when his devotion was over. There was a group of younger, teenage girls down there swimming. You get used to sharing.

They left after about twenty minutes of us being there. The water was chilly but felt good. Everyone relaxed and did they’re own beach thing. These are what Saturdays are supposed to be like, or Sundays, whatever day you want to make it, but these times when there is nothing else going on except being together or relaxing in nature and filling our cups in the ways that bring peace and rest.

My Dad took these first two pictures last September. My mom had texted while I was working on homework and asked if it’d be okay if she and dad came up and baptized each other in the lake. I said that should be fine, just to let me know when they were coming. They came on a Thursday.

I don’t remember what now, but there had been more going on to where I didn’t feel comfortable walking down and back to the beach, so we drove. When we got to the bottom of the road they parked by the shed. It was me and my parents. They started talking about the baptizing and my mom shared her reasons for wanting to be baptized. She’d been baptized before on a mission trip in South America somewhere. But for various reasons wanted to be rebaptized.

My dad, after hearing this, said that maybe it should just be her that got baptized. He wasn’t feeling the same need to do it again, but was still happy to do it for her if that’s what she wanted. So my mom gave her testimony while dad sat in the drivers seat and I sat in the back seat of the truck and listened.

Then we went over to the water and they both got in. Dad baptized Mom and it was awkward because you’re not as agile to lean backwards once you get into your upper decades. He said the only other person he’s baptized was Brandon. We drove back up in the truck and they stayed at the house for a little while longer. They played me a song, I don’t remember the name of it. They hooked it up to their speaker and we listened.

Dad started sharing about his life then, how he’d become a Christian during his young adult years. He’s told these stories before but I think it helps him to tell them and I do like to hear them.

After that they went back home. They passed Josh on the road who was coming home from the high school and picking up the boys. When they left I sat on the couch in awe of the ins and outs and fleeting nature of our days. I’d already asked about the baptizing thing a while back when they had asked another time but it didn’t end up working out to come. I’d almost forgotten all about it until today, when I was locking up the beach shed.