At 83 years old, Mrs Hiratsuka today accepted baptism. As she said in her moving testimony, “My sins have been washed away; I have become a child of God.”

I’ve been using Mrs Hiratsuka as an example in my sermons recently, because I’ve been preaching a lot about the believer’s joy. We often talk about being “born again” until it becomes a trite phrase, but to see someone of her age rejuvenated and full of joy reminds me why we say it.

And it reminds me why I’m here.