Giving thanks to God, and to other people around us, is not such an unusual thing. We regularly and consistently give thanks. And it seems to me that there are two broad occasions when we thank someone. One occasion is when someone does something for us that we could have done ourselves. It may be small, a little something that adds to the pleasantness of life, or it may be something enormous and grand that represents a real saving of time and effort on our part. These are all those things that we would have had to do ourselves, if it had not been for the care and compassion of someone who did them for us. The other occasion when we give thanks, is when someone does something for us that we could not ever have done ourselves. In these cases, it is not simply that except for their kindness we would have had to do it ourselves, it is a case of, if they had not done it for us, it would never have been done at all—something they can do for us which we cannot do for ourselves. A surgeon for example or a fireman or a soldier. When we would not have been able to do it ourselves, they defended us, or protected us, or healed us, in ways we never could have ourselves. All of our time, effort, resources would not have been adequate without their help. The first occasion is human and we encounter it often enough to make the heart glad—things done for us that we do not then have to do for ourselves. These second occasions are more rare, and possibly more precious—things done for us that we could never have done for ourselves. These occasions can include humans, but this is pre-eminently the area where we give thanks to God. Neurotic Dependence is a complex psychological problem, and needs to be treated—but right here I now speak of a healthy and good dependence. Dependence on others comes in a wonderful version as well. This variety of dependence is a good and holy thing, and we should rejoice in it, for it fosters, requires, provides human community, a bond of social caring, the joy of friendship, and the glory of love. We ought not to be embarrassed by our dependence on others, our finding others to be dependable, we should rejoice and be glad in it. So it should be with our dependence on God—it should be noted, and celebrated. We depend upon him utterly for things which we cannot, can never, acquire ourselves—like salvation, like eternal life, like resurrection of the dead. All of that depends on no one else, least of all ourselves—it all depends on God, and God alone. Tiny Dylan Matthew Bell shows us clearly how this can be. Without acknowledging it, without realizing it, he is utterly dependant on others, who do for him what he cannot do for himself. Alone, he would not long survive. A few days at most, probably only a few hours. He depends on others to feed and bathe him, hold and nurse him, keep him warm, sheltered, safe. He depends on others to provide him his first experience of love. Even his ability to ward off infection, something now close to my heart, was not originally the product of his own resources, but a gift from his mother's body when he was in the womb – through her own blood. He owes his life, and everything in it, to others. And he probably does not express thanks. And yet I am sure that his mother, his grandparents, all his family do not find him an especially ungrateful little baby. When he can speak and say and mean, "I love you," that will be thanks enough. A thanks that was never even required in the first place, but is nonetheless received with love. It cannot possibly be any different with God, the loving Father of us all. Regardless of what we do, say, think, or forget to do or say, he does not find us hopelessly ungrateful if we at least turn to him in love. As we pass though life and become ever more conscious of what he has done, and is doing, and will do for us, our gratitude, like this little baby's, will grow. And he, and we, will be able to express it better and better all the time. When Dylan is baptized this morning, he will be transformed in a way that is impossible to describe in human language. As the water of Baptism is poured over his tiny head, he will become a unique, precious, irreplaceable part of Jesus Christ. Dylan doesn't know that of course, not yet. He is unaware of what is happening to him. He depends utterly on God, and to a lesser extent he depends on us. Depends on God for his redemption, accomplished this morning, and he depends on us to share with him as he grows older what that redemption means and how to respond to that, and how to be thankful. He depends on us to make him realize and feel that he is truly a member of the household of faith and marked as Christ own forever. Thereafter, every aspect of his being, every thought, every word, every sorrow, every joy will be a part of God. He will be made a member of the Body of Christ forever, an inheritor of eternal life, a child adopted by God through grace to be his own child sharing all things with God's own natural born son. No matter what Dylan does, or how great he becomes, there will never be another moment in his life that will compare with the sanctity and significance of this moment this morning. And to all of this he will contribute nothing but his being. He will be as unaware of what is happening to him as you and I are unaware of how our own redemption is wrought on our behalf. Our conscious participation is no more required than his. God and God alone through Christ is working in this baptism and in our redemption. God and God alone is doing it, doing it all, redeeming Dylan, redeeming us. Here, above all, is what we cannot do ourselves, and depend on God to do for us, and so, then here is an occasion above all others on which we do give thanks, for something done for us, that we could never have done for ourselves. Oh my, what Dylan reminds us all of this day, his glorious Baptismal Day.