Out of the Miry Clay :: Deeper Devotion

Out of the Miry Clay

May 12, 2008

by Glenn Ansley

Psalms 40:2
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay;
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

The church Kristie and I attend hosted a picnic at one of the local lakes last Sunday night. It was the perfect way to spend the evening with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our church must have about one million members under the age of ten. These kids were running around like everywhere like maniacs. Many of them played down by the lake while others kicked a soccer ball around on the grass. My eyes were on Christian though. Christian’s a third grader in the Sunday school class Kristie and I teach. True to his character, he had found a mud hole formed by the previous night’s rainfall and was inventing several different ways to get in trouble with it. Mud was everywhere.

Our church didn’t meet to make mud pies and watch ten-year-old boys get in trouble though. As a body of believers, we came to celebrate and witness the baptisms of several new brothers and sisters in Christ.

One by one we listened to them give their testimonies of God’s amazing grace. Shortly thereafter, they were all led out into the lake to be baptized.

As I reflect back on the event, I realize just how much it did have to do with mud! Much like David in the Psalms, we had gathered together to jointly praise God for pulling us out of the muck and the mire we once enjoyed so much.

I think about Christian being covered with the mud and realize how great a symbolism baptism is. Not only are we proclaiming ourselves dead to sin and raised again with Christ, but we also are publicly proclaiming our own purification from the sin that once covered us like mud.

A new life, represented by immerging from the water, leaves us clean and spotless before the heavenly father and all those who agree with one mind.

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