19 Apr I Have Decided: Wesley

Baptism and Lego

Wesley, our 9-year-old son, absolutely loves Lego. Given a chance, he would eat, sleep, play with Lego 24/7. You could say he is obsessed with it. So, it was no surprise that God used Lego to teach Wesley about letting go.

The topic of baptism came up when we heard Pastor Ian mention it in church. David and I knew it was time to ask Wesley about baptism.

We’ve always known that Wesley had asked Jesus into his heart when he was younger – we prayed with him several times to confirm it. He often has questions about God:

“If Jesus loves me, how come I can’t see Him and touch Him?”
“If Jesus is in heaven, how can He live in my heart too?”

He also has a heart of empathy:

“Grandma, are you okay? I’ll pray for you to get better soon.”

But when we approached Wesley for baptism, his fears kicked in:

“I’m afraid…”
“Will I drown?” [says the boy who can swim full laps in the pool]

We assured him that baptism was just a public declaration of his faith; a testimony of his belief in Jesus Christ and His resurrection. Our old self dies with Him and our new self rises with Him!

The day came.

Everything was beautifully prepared – the baptismal pool, the cool, balmy air, the row of flower bouquets, the musicians. Wesley’s Ye Ye and Nai Nai and the supportive 3:16 family eagerly looked on.

Then, stage fright. He shied away from his prepared speech. He just uttered these 2 words – “Obey Jesus”.

The fears melted away once he hit the water.

A picture of him emerging together with the roars from the crowd says it all.

This is what God’s family feels like.

Something changed in him that night while playing Lego. His beautiful Lego structure was accidentally destroyed by a toy. Devastation and despair overtook him and he was inconsolable:

“It’s the worst day of my life!”
“Don’t touch it! You don’t understand Lego!!!”
“I don’t want to talk about it!”

We took the chance to work through Wesley’s emotions with him – he had to let go of self-pity, despair and anger at everything and everyone.

“Not everything is destroyed, Wesley,” I assured him. “I’m sorry I let the toy drop. I didn’t fix it properly. It’s mommy’s fault. I’ll help you rebuild the Lego, okay?”

In between sobs and tears, he cried out, “It’s not your fault, mommy. It’s mine. I’m sorry I was angry at you…

I sacrifice myself for you. Uncle ZY taught me this in church. Where is he? Sacrifice is when you take someone’s punishment so that they won’t be punished, just like what Jesus did.”

He kissed me on the shoulder and the crying stopped. Big smiles came back on while we spent the rest of the night recreating the Lego structure, piece by piece.

With Christ in the center, LEt’s GO!

David and Adeline Ong, parents of Wesley Ong