She Went by Gently

1. A gift of Baptism is the ability to love others as God loves us. The ability is seen in the women's treatment of the girl. The woman is very sensitive and comforting when the girl is having a bad time or in a stressful situation. The woman is able to love the girl as God loves her. In this we see the relationship between the girl and the woman but also the same kind of relationship mirrored back to us in the way that God loves us and we should love everyone in that way. The woman also shows her love for her by comforting her by telling her to be strong just like her mother. In this we see the way that the woman is there for the girl just as God is there for us. She goes four miles just to by the girl's side and God is just like that in the way that he is always with us. He will never leave our side and will carry us through the bad times.

2. At the end of the story the woman says un regard to the infant, "I saved him." What she means by this is that by baptizing the baby before he died, she pretty much saved the baby from sin. By baptizing the baby the original sin was wiped clear of him and even though he never made it to the age to be part of any of the other sacraments, he was able to receive baptism and is God's child. When the woman said, "I baptize you, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," she is putting the baby under God's protection and makes sure the baby has an unbreakable relationship with God.

3. The author describes the journey of the woman to her own home. The purpose of this selection of the story is to try to tell the reader about the birth of the baby and his baptism. This part was important because as a reader we were able to see that she had kept her faith even though she had seen sad things happen. She was still able to put herself in God and trust him enough to take care of her just like the woman's treatment of the girl. I think the author was trying to illustrate the deeper meaning of the woman's decision to baptize the baby. This was able to give the baby hope with God and to give him everlasting protection under him.