John 3:16
“I will praise the name of Jesus, hallelujah!
I will praise Him for His mercies unto me;
Then I’ll praise Him with the angels in the morning,
When the face of my dear Savior I shall see.
Oh, I praise Him for the strength He daily gives me,
I am running now to gain that heav’nly prize;
Soon with joy I’ll reach the goal of life immortal,
And go sweeping through the gates of paradise’’
When the choir finished singing the popular church song, I Will Praise him Hallelujah, by Daniel O. Teasly, I stood up and walked back to my podium, my hands shaking all the way. I had been looking forward to this particular service all week, but the thought of what I was about to do still made me gut-wrentchingly nervous. As I stood in front of the congregation, waiting for everyone to settle down, I noticed the bored looks on many of the people’s faces. I could honestly never understand why some people found church to be so tedious. I always found it to be something of enduring interest to me. Maybe it’s just a preacher thing….
I cleared my throat to catch the attention of the audience. Finally, most eyes were on me. I tried not to let my nervousness show. “I’d like to thank you all for coming this morning. I want to start today off with my favorite bible verse: John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that all who believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Now I know what you must be thinking, ‘Why is this your favorite bible verse pastor Wilson?’ Well, it was because of that bible verse that I am where I am today. It’s because of that bible verse that the Lord lives within me! And that I will have eternal life!
"You may, or may not know this, but when I was around ten years old, my father died in a car accident. Hit and run drunken driver.” I heard a few gasp from the audience. Now that caught their attention! Now, all eyes were on me. Even the younger kids were slightly leaned forward in their seats, listening intently. I looked around at the different faces, trying to read their expressions. I glanced over at my wife. She gave a slight smile, silently urging me on. My two sons gave me huge smiles and two thumbs up. I took a deep breath before continuing, but for some reason, I wasn’t as nervous anymore. Although, I still had butterflies.
“When my dad died, I hated the world. I hated the man who killed him, I hated myself for not being able to do something about it, I hated my mom for not being there for me, and more than anything, I hated God for letting him die. Well, one day a few months after he was killed, I decided to run away from home, if you could even call it a home. You see, my mother was never there. She was always gone during the day looking for a real job, and she would only come home at night to tuck me in before she went out to complete her nightly 'duty' with as many desperate men that she could find.I didn’t have any siblings, so I was basically on my own. I felt like no one in the world cared about me.
Well anyway, I was walking for a good few hours, before it started to rain. I saw a church across the road with a light emitting from one of the windows. I decided to take shelter there for the night. I didn’t know it would be then, but it was one of the best decisions of my life.”
Ten year old Charlie Wilson walked along the deserted road with his head down and his hands deep in his pockets. He sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye. A sudden rumble of thunder made him look up at the sky. Dark storm clouds were forming in the distance. He really hoped it wouldn’t rain. He had no where to go and getting soaked wouldn’t help his situation.
Maybe he could find a place to wait out the storm when it hit. He pulled his hoodie closer as a gust of wind blew against his face.God he was cold.All he had to keep him warm was his old hoodie. As he was trying to think of a way to warm up, another clash of thunder made him jump. Then, it started to pour.
“Aw, Come On!” Charlie yelled to the sky. He pulled his hood over his head and kept walking, though now at a faster pace. He started to look for some place to take shelter. He didn’t want to sit under a tree. What if it got hit by lightning?
As he turned a curb, he saw something, and it was glowing! Wait, what? As he walked closer, he was able to make out the form of a building, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Soon however, he was able to tell it was a church, and the glowing he saw, was a light shining from the window.
‘Maybe I can sleep there tonight if it’s unlocked!’ he thought.
He ran up to the door and pulled. When it didn’t open, he pulled a few more times, a little harder. His heart sunk when he realized the door was locked.
“It’s push son”
The sudden deep voice caused Charlie to jump and spin around. Standing there in the rain was on older looking man with a few grays in his jet black hair dressed in all black. The thing that Charlie found most curious though, was his long black trench coat. The man walked a little closer so that he was only a couple of feet away from Charlie.
“What’s your name, son?”
Charlie couldn’t speak. His heart was pounding hard in his chest. He wasn’t sure if he could trust this man. Who was he? Why was he talking to him? He wasn’t going to try to hurt him was he? Several different scenarios ran through Charlie's mind. As Charlie stood there, letting his imagination get away from him, the strange man spoke again.
“Cat got your tongue?”
Mustering up as much courage as he could, Charlie gulped and said, “N-no! My name’s Charlie-Charlie Wilson." Charlie tried his hardest to seem braver than he felt.
“Well, Charlie, you wanna tell me what your doin’ out hear in the rain?” When Charlie didn’t respond, the man said, “Why don’t you come inside with me?” Charlie didn’t move as he watched the man walk past him and push open the door. “Well, come on! I don’t bite!”
Charlie wasn’t sure what made him follow the man inside. Maybe it was his smooth southern accent, but he wasn’t sure. When Charlie walked in, he felt a wave of warmth wash over him. It was very homey inside the church, even though there wasn’t much. There were only six rows of pews on either side of the room. To the right was a single hallway which lead to one restroom, and another small room that Charlie guessed was a nursery to keep the little kids in.
“Have a seat Charlie” the man said. Charlie sat on the last pew. The man sat beside him, which made Charlie a little uncomfortable. “I’m Paul Walden. You can call me Mr. Walden, Pastor Walden, Preacher Walden, or just Mr. Paul, if you like. So, tell me Charlie, why are you out here in the pouring rain all by yourself?”
Charlie didn’t want to tell this man that he had run away from home, so he quickly made up a lie. “I was taking a walk. I was just on my way home, actually.” Mr. Walden gave Charlie a stern look. For a moment, Charlie felt like the man's bright blue eyes could see right through him.
“I’m going to have to ask you not to lie son. You are in a house of God after all.” Charlie wanted to tell the man he wasn’t lying, but something about his piercing gaze told him not to.
“I-I ran away from home,” he stated timidly.
“Now why’d you do that son?”
“No one loves me!” He blurted out. He hadn’t meant to, but you can only keep stuff like this bottled up for so long. “My moms never home! She’s always off with some strange man, and it’s a different one every time! I haven’t got any other family! No brothers or sisters or anyone to take care of me! I’m on my own!” Charlie’s voice broke and he felt tears prickle at his eye but he refused to let them fall.
“What about your dad?” Mr. Walden asked.
Charlie was hoping he wouldn’t say that. “He’s dead.” He stated simply.
“Well, I can tell you one person who loves you.” Charlie highly doubted that.
“Who?”
“God.”
Charlie let out a sarcastic and bitter laugh. It was the last thing you would expect to hear from a ten year old. Mr. Walden raised his eyebrows. “God doesn’t love me! He killed my dad! If God loved me, he wouldn’t have let my dad die! I don’t even know if God is real any more!” He felt tears prickle at his eyes again, but this time, he didn’t hold them back; he let them fall.
Mr. Walden just stared at him for a second before saying “For God so love the world that he gave his one and only son so that every one who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life, John 3:16. What do you have to say about that boy? God gave up his only son for us! So that we could be saved! If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. And as for not believing that God exists, the fact that you even have a mind to think such a thing is proof enough. That’s no coincidence.”
Charlie pondered this for a second. He was taken aback by Mr. Walden’s strong words. It did make since though. For God to give up his son; his only son, he must’ve really loved us a lot. And there was no way that this whole world was an accident, so God hadto be real. He looked up at Mr. Walden and saw him pull a little bible from his trench coat pocket. It was one of those tiny ones that you could buy almost anywhere that came in multiple colors. This one was orange.
Mr. Walden offered it to him. “Here. Why don’t you take this? Give it a read whenever you have any doubts about God.” Charlie took it and looked him right in the eye.
“Thanks” He said sincerely. “Um, Mr. Walden? C-Could you take me home?” Mr. Walden smiled a bit.
“Where do you live?”
“Right off ‘36, next to the county line.”
“That’s not too far off. Sure, I’ll take you home, son.”
Charlie smiled a little as he hopped into Mr. Walden’s car and listened to him tell him stories from the Bible.
“From then on, Preacher Walden picked me up every Sunday morning and took me to church. He became like a second father to me. And I became very close to his daughter.” I glanced at my wife and shot her a quick grin before continuing. “My life changed the moment I decided to walk up to that church. Personally, I think God sent me there that night. I think he wanted me to talk to Preacher Walden, so I could be saved from the path I was on.”
I took a moment to look at all the faces again. Most of the women were dabbing their wet eyes with handkerchiefs. Many of the men were sitting a little straighter in their seats. I’m glad my story had such a positive effect on them. “My point is, ladies and gentlemen, is that if you can understand just how much God loves you, if you can understand the greatness of his sacrifice for us, then maybe you can understand how to love him back, and how to serve him, so you can be saved just like me. Now if you would join me in a word of prayer…”
Ten minutes later, I found myself driving home with my boys joking around in the back of the car and my wife sitting next to me in the passengers seat. "John! Gabe! Settle down back there!"
"Sorry daddy!"
I turned to my wife and saw that her hand was resting on her slightly protruding stomach. "By the way, Caroline, I'm glad you talked me into that. I can tell it was well worth it.” She turned to me and shot me that little grin she always gets when she's right; which was a lot.
"I knew it would be."
