Why Bumpa Is Smiling

Let me explain this blog’s banner and why Bumpa is not worried about his Little Sweetie. Alexa is being held safe and secure in the arms of her loving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who keeps her forever with Him at the Father’s right hand in heaven even as He cares for her here on earth by His left.

Here is what I mean. According to His apostle, Paul, the crucified and risen Son of God, Jesus Christ, has ascended to the right hand of the Father for one reason—to take all who are baptized and believe in Him to heaven with Him, now and forever, once and for all.

• God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:4-6
• you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. . . . having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:

With Christ, the Baptized are not only kept safe for eternity in heaven but also provided for here in time on earth.

• Therefore I [Jesus] tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:25-33

In holy Baptism, God placed His name upon Alexa just as He has placed His name upon every soul who is so washed in the water connected to His holy Word for the forgiveness of sins–in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Alexa is a Hering child because she was born (carried into this world) to her father and mother–Kevin & Ciara (Von Goeben) Hering. With the name Hering, Alexa receives everything Kevin and Ciara have at their disposal for her care and keeping because she is part of the Hering household. That household extends through all of Kevin and Ciara’s relatives as well.

Alexa is a child of God because she was born again (carried into heaven) to her God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. With the name of the One True God—Father, Son, And Holy Spirit—Alexa receives everything the family of God has at their disposal for her care and keeping because she is part of God’s household, the holy Christian Church. That household extends not only through all the baptized believers in Christ throughout the world today, but into eternity among all the saints from the sixth day of creation to the Last.

The Hering’s may do everything within their limited power and resources to care for Alexa and keep her with them in the Hering household as long as they can. But God does everything within His unlimited power and resources to care for Alexa and keep her with Him and all the Baptized in the household of heaven forever.

• What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? . . . Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-32, 34-39

The Baptismal font you see in the banner of this page is the font at which Bumpa’s Little Sweetie, Alexa, was born again into God’s household of heaven. There she was not only given His name, she was raised into heaven with Him.

And that is why Bumpa is smiling.