John 6:22-40
“Notice what you notice.” Today’s reading is one that is always special to me. After the initial conversation between Jesus and the townspeople, we get to Jesus speaking in John 6:37-40, repeated here in full: All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.
This section of Scripture leapt off the pages at me when I first read them. Here’s the story. I was born again in May, 1975. In June of 1976 I attended a month-long Campus Crusade “Bible camp” in Fort Collins, Colorado. After about a week there I was called into the office in the middle of the afternoon to take a person-to-person phone call. It was my sister telling me that our mother (stepmother) had been killed in a car-train accident. She was not your iconic “stepmother”; she had been “Mom” for 21 years and we had a good relationship. The leaders at the camp took care immediately to get me plane reservations and take me to the airport; they also arranged for my family to pick me up (in St. Louis). My younger brother had been in the car with Mom and was in the hospital with broken ribs, a punctured lung, and burns over 25% of his body. He survived and is alive today – but that’s another story.
I stayed home (Illinois) for a week or so until things had settled down a bit. Since I had driven out to Colorado, I had to go back, at a minimum to retrieve my car. Depending on my feelings and my reception back at the camp, I would either finish out the camp or come right back home. So I got a bus ticket and headed back to Colorado on July 4, 1976 – our nation’s Bicentennial birthday. Since I was not yet certain as to whether I would be staying at the camp or coming back home, I decided to catch up on my reading of the Gospel of John – one of the courses I was taking. It was on this bus ride that the verses above jumped off the page at me.
I had been raised in a strong Catholic faith. Now I was involved in this more Protestant born-again environment. On hearing the news of her death I had wondered if my mother was in heaven or hell. I voiced that concern to the camp leaders as we drove to the airport. As I recounted my family’s faith, they assured me that Mom was in heaven. While it was reassuring to hear that from them, I still wondered. Then those verses…!! All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. … This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. Those verses told me that my mother was in heaven. Moreover, they told me that my brother was not killed because he was not yet ready to die. As I said above, that’s another story. He, too, is now born again.
So, bottom line, folks. God is at work in our lives and in the lives of everyone we know. And He will not bring us to our end until He is certain that we are either devoted to Him or that we have a full, complete rejection of Him. I remember reading a conversation between God and someone on earth in a simple little book, The Singer by Calvin Miller. The person asked God, “How can you condemn people to hell for all eternity?” And God responds, “I don’t condemn them, Pilgrim, I can’t keep them out!” So that unbeliever in your life – keep praying and sharing!
Slava Bohu!