Again his heart soared. God had heard his prayers. During the dangerous missions and months apart, her faith had changed her. “Baptizing you…” His soul was almost too full for him to speak. “That would be an honor, Eliza.”
“Thank you.” She turned to him. “Were you baptized?”
“I was. At our family’s church when I was twelve.” He could picture the moment. Shane and him choosing to get baptized that day. “My brother and I had been studying what the Bible teaches about baptism.” He smiled at the memory. “Finally we couldn’t wait another week.”
She nodded. “That’s how I feel. I want to bury my old life… in the waters of the sea. Leave it behind me for good.” She breathed in, her face toward the sky. “When I come up out of that water, everything will be new.”
“Yes.” He blinked back tears. He hadn’t dreamed they would have this conversation their first day together. “When do you want to do it?”
Her smile gave him the answer even before she did. “Now.”
* * *
THE SUN HUNG just above the horizon as they reached the water. They held hands and faced the waves, their feet in the gentle surf. Jack pictured Eliza’s life, the loneliness and loss.
“If I could go back and take you from that place… give you the life you deserved, Eliza…” He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Nothing… nothing you ever saw or did at that place was your fault.” He gently faced her. “You know that.”
“Yes.” The peace in her eyes was not of this world. “But I made choices I regret. If I had it to do again, I’d let the guards shoot me rather than talk a single girl into going to the Palace.” She sighed. “I want to put everything about that time behind me.” She slipped off her swimsuit cover-up and tossed it on the dry sand. Then she took a few steps into the shallow water. “Please?”
From his phone app, Jack had read the Scriptures about baptism on the elevator ride down to the lobby. He peeled off his T-shirt and set it on the shore. He was ready to do this. They walked out ten yards or so, where the water was waist deep. It was only May, so the sea was chilly.
Eliza didn’t seem to mind. She wasn’t shivering or jittery. Her eyes met his. “Go ahead, Jack.”
He nodded. “Throughout the book of Acts, when someone came to life-changing faith in Jesus, they got baptized. Jesus, Himself, was baptized by John—to show us the way.” A hope that knew no limits filled him. “Eliza… do you want Jesus to be your Lord and Savior?”
“I do.” A smile lit up her face.
Jack remembered how this was done. When he was growing up, baptisms happened regularly at his church.
He stood beside her and brought her hand to her face so she could hold her nose. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For the forgiveness of your sins and for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Buried with Him in death”—Jack laid her backward under the water and then carefully lifted her out again—“raised with Him to new life, Eliza. Now and evermore.”
Salt water streamed down her hair and brow, but nothing could dampen the joy on her face, the healing that filled her eyes. She laughed and raised her hands in the air. “Yes!” She looked to the sky again. “Yes, God!”
“Congratulations.” He searched her eyes. Maybe this was only the beginning for the two of them. It was possible, right? They had made it this far. He put his hand alongside her face. “I’ve never… experienced anything like that.”
Laughter spilled from her lips. “I feel it. I feel God here.” Then she turned to Jack and held him, like she might never let go. “I’m brand-new, Jack. Like when I was little.”
When she was little…
Suddenly, in that very instant, Jack knew what he had to do. He could remember again her child-sized body, limp in his arms when she was just nine years old, the way it felt to rescue her from the waves and carry her to shore. Her arms around his neck like they were right now.
I need to tell her, God.
Yes, my son. Today is a new beginning.
Jack took a deep breath. As pinks and blues streaked across the Cancún sky, they gathered their things and walked up the beach. She dried off with one of the resort’s blue-striped towels, but though the air was still warm, she was shivering. Jack found a sweatshirt in her bag, and gave it to her. “Here.”
“Thanks.” She pulled it over her head. “I think I’m just… amazed. In awe.” Her damp hair hung down her back, but her face was dry now. “I can’t believe it.”