Going Hat-in-Hand

I was reading Dr. Hein's article "The Freedom of Grace and the Bondage of the Neighbor: The Paradox of Christian Nurture" and was STRUCK...in so many ways and on so many levels. The main level, of course, was in light of me being a new mom with a vocation of raising my daughter in the fear and admonition of the Lord as I covenanted to do before God and His Holy Church on the day I was married to my dear husband. This may seem a small thing now since she is only 3 1/2 months old! But the job has already begun. Then I read this:

"It is recounted that Luther's last spoken words on his deathbed were: We are all beggars, and that's the truth. And so here is our task: to raise young beggars who make it habit , simply to go - spiritual hat in hand to the throne of grace - and receive all the donated dignity and sustenance for life they can get from the bleeding charity of a crucified Christ."

What a comfort! To simply receive. Yet this is one of the hardest things for our Old Adam to do, which is why daily baptism is of the utmost importance. Again to quote Dr. Hein:

"Spiritual beggars are made - and renewed in their passion to beg - by continual experience of their own spiritual poverty. Only those who die to sin may live in Christ. This is as true for the two and three-old baptized as it is for their parents."