The veteran parent—twinkle in her eye—says to a newbie teacher: “I’ll only believe half of what they tell me, if you promise to do the same.”

How many stories do you have to tell from another school year? A few likely bring tears and, I pray, many more bring a smile and a laugh.

And the story, the over-arching story, the one to fill your ears and your hearts this very day, is his story.

• It’s a story told first to a member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus is his name. A man who came to Jesus at night—wondering and questioning.
• It’s a story told to you, a story of love undeserved, a story of love that seeks your best interest, a story of a gift, a story of love come down from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ, a story of the only-begotten Son, for you.
• It’s a story of life! It’s a story that says death (which you were born into, and which you see all around you) is not the end of your story.
• It’s a story of faith, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
• It’s a story of eternal life, a story that casts a beautiful shade on all the other stories that you hear; stories that you live; stories that you tell.

The Holy Trinity has brought you into the story: baptized in his name.

The Holy Trinity has given you a place to hear that story, again and again, and through that story, he loves you and strengthens you and gives you a new way to live.

If you find yourself this day looking back over months that could be characterized as “the best” or “the hardest”; if you find yourself this day gearing up for new blessings and new challenges that come with the summer months, how blessed you are:

• To be part of a world that God loved, and loves.
• To be the recipient of this beautiful good news: For God so loved the world that he gave…
• To be a child of eternal life.
• To be put in a place where those words again get to come out of your lips and hit the ears of those so dear to your Savior Jesus, and to trust that the Lord will bless the telling and re-telling of that story for this generation, too.

For God so loved the world that he gave…and that gift is for you!