For God So Loved the World
I think my 6-year-old son may be a prophet.
Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe. Let me explain.
Yesterday morning as we got in the car to head to church, I placed my Bible on the front seat beside me. From the back seat my son said I could put my Bible back there with him.
As I handed him my Bible, he informed me he was going to keep it on his lap and he asked me to turn around and look at him as proof of this statement.
“That’s fine.” I stated and we headed on our way.
As we drove along he proclaimed he was going to find “John 16, because that is written on a cross that papa has in his house.”
I said, “Oh, you mean John 3:16?” realizing he must have been referring to what is probably the most well-known passage in the Bible.
As he flipped through my Bible, looking for the book of John, I helped direct him to it. “It’s after the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke.”
When he finally found the book of John, he quickly flipped to chapter 3, verse 16.
By this time, we were in the church parking lot. He read the verse out loud to me and I asked him if he knew what the verse meant.
I explained, “It means that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will have eternal life.”
My son replied “Yeah, I know that.” (This is his reply to most things these days because either he really does know what I’ve just informed him of OR he doesn’t really know what I just informed him of but he wants me to think he already knows what I just informed him of. He must get this from his dad).
He got out of the car, I escorted him to the classroom where he participates in children’s church and I found my way to a seat in the sanctuary eager to hear the morning’s sermon from our pastor who had been on vacation and absent the previous two Sundays.
As the service began, the associate pastor walked up to the podium to read the scripture for which the head pastor’s sermon would be based on. The slide with the scripture flashed on to the projector screen in the front of the sanctuary as the associate pastor stated, “Today’s scripture comes from John, chapter 3, verses 16 through 21.”
I had to pick my jaw up from the floor.
My brain went into overdrive. What just happened?
How in the world did my son know that this is the scripture the pastor would be focused on? My son just read John 3:16 to me in the parking lot not 10 minutes earlier.
OMG. Like, literally.
There are so many things that had to align themselves in order for this to have occurred.
My father-in-law (my son’s papa), had to have a cross in his home that had John 3:16 written on it.
My son had to have seen said cross.
My son had to have remembered he saw the cross and remember that John 3:16 was written on it.
My husband had to have missed church yesterday because he was out of town. Typically, my husband drives us to church, I sit in the front passenger seat, my Bible sits in the front seat with me and my son never asks to hold my Bible on his lap.
The pastor had be inspired while on vacation to prepare a sermon around John 3:16-21.
I’m not sure what this all means.
My parents’ health has been failing recently with big declines happening in just the past few months. It has felt at times like my prayers for them have gone unanswered.
Perhaps this was God’s way of hitting me over the head saying, “I’m here. I love you. I hear your prayers.”
Maybe this was God’s not-so-subtle reminder that I need to make disciples of unbelievers and share Jesus and His love with those who need it.
I don’t know.
But I know that at the very least, I felt compelled to share this story. Take from it what you will.
I believe that God so loved the world that He gave His only son so that we won’t perish but have eternal life.
Do you?
Dana Vanhoy is a follower of Christ and an enthusiast of all things coffee, HGTV, and true-crime related. She's a voiceover artist trying to figure it all out.