“By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”    (1 Peter 1:3, NRSV).

     Yet, I’ve always been a champion of the underdog. My reason for doing so is connected to my faith in Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3 proclaims, “By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (NRSV). I translate these words to mean that in God’s economy there is no such thing as a hopeless cause. The potential for new birth is always possible to those who place their faith and hope in Christ.

     The story is told of a seminary professor and his wife who were vacationing in Tennessee. They stopped to eat at a restaurant. A stranger approached them and asked where they were from. They told him they hailed from Oklahoma. “What do you do for a living,” the stranger asked? “I’m a preacher,” the man replied.

     “Well, allow me to tell you about another preacher, who used to live right over that hill,” as the stranger pointed out the window. Years ago, a new preacher came to town. An orphan boy lived near the church. The orphan was frequently picked on by others in the community as they would ask him, “Who’s your daddy?” The boy would hide during recess, so as not to hear the ridicule of his classmates. He would duck in and out of church before the new pastor could greet him.

     Yet, one day the pastor made an early departure toward the door and the boy had to leave with the crowd. As they boy approached, the pastor innocently asked him, “Who’s your daddy, son?” The congregation became quiet, and the pastor sensed the tension in the room. The pastor rose to the occasion by exclaiming, “Wait, I know who you are. You’re a child of God. Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go, and claim it.”

     From that moment forward, anytime the boy was asked who his daddy was, he would reply, “I’m a child of God.”  “Isn’t that a great story,” the stranger told the seminary professor? As the stranger turned to leave he said, “You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably never would have amounted to anything.” With that the stranger walked away.

The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. They called the waitress over to their table and asked, “Do you know who that man was?” She grinned, “Of course, that’s Ben Hooper. He’s the former governor of Tennessee!”

Prayer:

Lord God, place someone in my life today that needs a reminder that they are one of God’s children, too. Through Christ, I pray. Amen.