I remember when I did term papers in college that it was always helpful for me to go back to the source material (magazine article or newspaper clipping) to find out where a certain idea came from. (It was the ’90s.)

We do the same thing today when we “Google” something on the internet to discover how a particular movement or school of thought came about.

Late in his ministry, when people were seeking to arrest him, Jesus returned to “where it all began.” We read:

He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained (John 10:40).

We get the sense that Jesus went there to get some clarity, to keep these starting moments in his heart as his mother Mary had done at his birth, and to remember the words his Father spoke at his baptism, his rebirth: “This is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Maybe he put some water over his head once again and was refreshed in his reason for being: to save us from sin. Maybe he was re-energized by seeing that place again and “living in it” for a bit.

It’s good for us to go back to our baptism now and then in our mind’s eye and sit with that thought for a while. Through water and the Word, we were made a child of God and we were washed clean to live a new life to Christ through the Holy Spirit. That moment can never be taken away from us, and that moment compels us to move forward in our own mission to follow through with what our Father had in mind for us from the very beginning of our journey with him.