“Dad, Jesus Told Me to Tell You”

No matter what new tidbits he revealed, though, Colton had one consistent theme: he talked constantly about how much Jesus loves the children. I mean that: constantly.

He would wake up in the morning and tell me: “Hey Dad, Jesus told me to tell you, he really loves the children.”

Over dinner at night: “Remember, Jesus really loves the children.”

Before bed, as I helped him brush his teeth, “Hey, Daddy don’t forget,” he’d say, garbling the words through a mouthful of toothpaste foam, “Jesus said he really, really loves the children!”

Sonja got the same treatment.

—HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, 105–106

Todd

Colton came back from heaven with an urgent message for me. Jesus had told him to tell us that he loves the children.

To be honest, if it had been anyone else sending us that message, I might have thought, Duh! I know that. There are lots of places in the Bible where Jesus showed us how important children are to him. But Colton’s emphasis wasn’t on the message. It was on me. This is how he said it: “Dad, Jesus told me to tell you he really loves the children.”

Sonja has always had a huge heart for children’s ministries. It’s her passion. But when Colton came back from heaven with this message from Jesus directly to me, I had to take some time to consider just what Jesus wanted me to do with it.

While Sonja has been a kind of hands-on children’s worker, I’ve been the one overseeing everything, if you want to put pastoring a church in business terms. The children’s ministry was a part of my job, but it sure wasn’t the priority.

But then came that personal message delivered by Colton, and I knew I needed to pray for guidance so I would know the best work to do in response to it. Gradually it became clear to me I couldn’t be a preacher who focuses just on the adults.

Let me step back a minute and give you a little background. As I grew up, two preachers had very different influences on my life. I grew up in a small church with a weekly attendance of seventy to eighty, tops. The pastor of that church acted as if he was really important, so parents ran interference between him and the children in the church. We kids weren’t supposed to “bother” him.

Then, when I was twelve, my family visited a church with more than a thousand people in attendance. The second Sunday we attended, I was standing by myself in the crowded foyer surrounded by more people than I’d ever seen anywhere. Suddenly someone called me by name and said, “Todd, I’d like to meet you.”

It was the pastor of that huge church. I had no clue how he knew my name, but there he was, talking to me as though I was the most important person in the room. Several people came up, obviously wanting to talk to him, but he said, “Sorry, I can’t talk to you right now. I’m talking to Todd.”

When my parents saw the pastor talking to me, they thought, Oh, no. What did he do? (I have to admit, alarm was the more common response for them when they saw me being addressed by someone in authority.)

It’s got to be obvious which pastor showed me that I mattered and made me feel special. As I thought about the message Colton brought to me from heaven, I knew God wanted me to be that kind of pastor.

It’s not just being a preacher in a church that welcomes children. It’s about everything that I am. I try to make kids feel special and important. We wrote the kids’ version of Heaven Is forReal hoping to convince all the children who read it that they matter, and that Jesus really loves them.

Sonja and I have been all over the country since the book was published, making a point to speak to children’s workers, encouraging them and urging them, “Don’t quit. Don’t give up. What you do is one of the most important things in the church today.”

Sometimes I look at what has happened in the years since Colton visited heaven and came back to deliver the message from Jesus, and I think this must be how the apostle Peter felt when Jesus told him to get out of the boat and walk across the water to him. I’m doing something I never thought possible—spreading Jesus’ message about kids on a global level.

Have you ever considered what message Jesus has for you? If your child visited heaven, would he or she come back and say, “Mommy, Jesus really loves the people who are sick and dying and wants you to take care of them.” Maybe hospice nurses hear that in their spirits.

Or, “Daddy, those people who work in your office are alone and hurting. He really loves them, but they don’t know it.”

Or, “Sister, Jesus told me to tell you the kids in your class, those girls who are always worried about what they wear, the guys who feel they can never be good enough, he really loves them.”

Or, “Brother, Jesus told me to tell you to help with teenagers . . .”

Old people, children, the sick, the youth group, there are so many opportunities for carrying God’s love to the world. The list could go on and on. Everyone’s calling may be different, and each one is special.

Have you let God speak to you, get your attention?

When I prepare to receive my reward in heaven, I’m pretty sure Jesus is going to bring up the message he sent to me from Colton. Maybe it might sound something like this: “Well, Todd, Colton did his job. He told you what I told him to. Now what did you do with it?”

If Jesus loves you (and I promise you, he does), he wants to use you for something important too. Maybe you won’t have such an obvious message as I did, with your four-year-old following you around the house harassing you. But God does want to get your attention. Does he have it yet? Jesus told Colton to tell me he really loves the children. And now I’m telling you he has a message for you too. What are you going to do with your message?

What has Jesus asked you to do?

Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you.

—Jeremiah 1:5 MSG