We need grace like we need air.  One is essential to physical life and the other to spiritual life.  For this reason, the Church strives to be a family full of God’s favor.  Our sins and our suffering can only be overcome by the love of God, so the Church seeks to be a community abounding in grace.  But, God’s love does not grow on trees; it is not harvested or gathered.  God ordained specific instruments to be His means of grace: mostly, the Word, sacraments, prayer, and fellowship.  Baptism, one of those precious sources of grace, seems to have slipped from the church’s high esteem.  The lasting power of water applied in the triune name is too easily lost.  For too many baptism is