3:16


 

A bit of nostalgia for a moment.

 

Does anyone remember crowds at sports events? It’s so weird to be watching sport on TV, the odd voice echoing around an empty stadium, arena, court, wherever it may be. But the times are what they are for the moment, and for sports lovers like myself, we’ll take what we can get.

 

But I do miss the crowds.

 

Thinking back even further I can remember as a child watching sport on TV, especially anything from America, and being puzzled by something I saw almost every week. There was a strange message that seemed to appear wherever large groups of people gathered.

 

You may have seen in yourself. Always someone, somewhere in the crowd, holding up a placard out of nowhere saying “John 3:16”.

 

In the days before I became a Christian I used to wonder if it was someone reminding a friend of something they had to do (“John! Don’t forget the dentist appointment at 3:16pm”), an address, a secret coded message.

 

Later I came to know that it’s actually the most famous verse in the Bible. More famous than Psalm 23 (the Lord is my shepherd), more famous than the Lord’s prayer we memorised at school (Our Father, who art in heaven), more famous even than the ten commandments. John 3:16 goes like this:

 

“For God so loved the world

that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish

but have eternal life”

 

We’re going through a period right now where the thought of death has never been so stark and so close for so many. The idea that we could, quite easily, perish hovers over every newsflash or update. But there is a promise here.

 

God gave is only son, for our sakes, so that we might live. The promise is for whoever individually believes.

 

The crowds are gone for now. The placard doesn’t pop up out of the mass of humanity at sports events, concerts or rallies.

 

But the message remains. The call is what it always has been. It is no ranting, no yelling at the world, no impersonal slogan.

 

God never cried out to a faceless crowd.

 

God never sees a crowd at all.

 

The call is one-on-one, a personal invitation – if you will believe - to live.

 

 

 

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