The best thing of all

Every night before we tuck K. and G. into bed we read to each of them from a Bible storybook. Last night I read K. the story of Paul and Silas locked in a Philippian jail for preaching about Jesus, singing through the night in their chains, and then going free after an earthquake bursts open all the doors. The end of the story said Paul wrote a letter to his friends in Philippi which we can find in our Bibles.

K. wanted to see it in his Bible, so I turned to the book of Philippians and showed him. "What does the letter say?" he wondered. I read the first few verses. "What's the rest? Keep reading!" So, long after he was supposed to be asleep, I read all four chapters of Philippians to my 7 year old.

When I got to the part that goes, "I consider everything to be nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. To know him is the best thing of all," K. said, "Ya!"

I read on: "I want to know Christ better. I want to know the power that raised him from the dead."

He cried out, "Yes!"

It reminded me of the stories I've heard from China or Vietnam where people hide in rice patties or warehouses all night long to hear someone read from the Bible. Like Paul and Silas so long ago, many people around the world risk their lives, their homes, and their freedom just to hear and share the words of Jesus, because they believe in their healing, transforming power.

They get it: Everything else is nothing compared to knowing him.

I don't know what kind of challenges, disappointments, or pain K. will face in his life because of his disability. I don't know if he'll get married, pass algebra, or drive a car. But seeing his eyes light up with excitement about the power of Jesus at work inside him I know, like the persecuted Christians in the rice patties, my son gets it too.

And everything else is nothing compared to that.