Galatians 4: When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent for the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Advent is about the fullness of times. It’s about the coming of the Son, who later sends the Spirit, to begin a new time, to reset creation. Advent is about the age to come arriving now in the midst of this age, about a new time invading the old.

As the Scriptures insist, Advent is a once-for-all event. Jesus was born once, died once, rose again once, ascended to reign once, and sent the Spirit once. The Spirit abides with us from Pentecost to the end of the age, and Jesus is on His throne until every enemy is beneath His feet.

But these once-for-all events initiate a new creation, a new time, in which these events are repeated in lesser ways again and again. Jesus died once, but we are constantly taking up the cross; He rose once for all, but precisely because of that once-for-all event we rise to new life every day; the Spirit came once-for-all, but the Spirit who filled the apostles continues to fill us.

Jesus comes every Lord’s day to welcome us, speak to us, feed us, and send us into the world refreshed. Jesus comes to rescue us in dangers and sickness and death. Jesus comes to judge and discipline us when we are straying from His ways. Advent means that Jesus came; Advent also means that Jesus comes, and keeps coming.

This is what baptism means for your children today. Baptism is the entry rite, the doorway, into the body of Christ, who is the Son of God. Baptism is an adoption rite, whereby we are marked as Abraham’s seed. As Paul says, baptism is the sign that we are not slaves but sons, and because we are sons we are heirs of God, heirs of all that God promised Abraham, which was literally everything.

Baptism is therefore a reminder that in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem us and make us sons and daughters of Abraham. But baptism not only points back to these once-for-all events. As a sign of the gospel, it points forward. It’s a reminder that Jesus came, but it is also a pledge that He will keep coming.

Your daughters are being baptized on the first Sunday of Advent, and that gives you some direction for how you should raise them. When they face temptation, they should remember their baptism and expect Jesus to come to their aid. When they are facing new challenges, they should recall their baptismal status as daughters of the living God, and trust that He is sufficient for them. If in despair and hopelessness and weakness, they cry out Abba! Father!, they have every reason that the Son who came once for all at Bethlehem will come again.

This is the meaning of their baptism: Emmanuel, the God who is God with us, is their God, God with them.