From Everywhere to One Family – June 2, 2025

Read: Acts 16:6-10

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia. They passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Acts 16:6,8-10

From Everywhere to One Family

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Imagine an older version of yourself is attending a huge school on a university campus—over 40,000 students go to school there! You see students from all over the world. You hear people talking in Mandarin, Hindi, Korean, and English. These students are learning things like math, science, farming, and money stuff. Everyone looks different, talks differently, and has different dreams for what they want to be and do for their lives.

But on Saturdays in the fall—something remarkable happens. All those differences seem to disappear. Thousands of students put on their team colors, pile into the stadium, and cheer for the football team together. They shout, high-five, hug, and jump up and down like they’re all one big happy family!

The apostle Paul knew what it was like to be around people who were different too. He was Jewish, but that didn’t stop him from telling the good news of Jesus to everyone—even people who weren’t Jewish. He traveled all around (like in today’s country of Turkey), sharing the life story of Jesus with people who ate different foods, wore different clothes, and spoke different languages. The one thing they all had in common: Jesus. That made Paul super happy, and he wanted to keep sharing the good news with even more people!

Then one night, Paul had a special dream from God. In the dream, a man from another place—maybe dressed funny and looking different than Paul—said, “Please come to us! We need Jesus too!”

That was Jesus’ way of saying, “Go tell everyone in the world about me!” (Mark 16:15). So off Paul went—to tell people about the Savior who came for everyone, no matter where they lived or what language they spoke.

And guess what? That good news has made it all the way to you and me!

Closing Prayer:

Dear Jesus, thank you for sending your helpers to share your love with people from every country and language. Help us remember that we all belong to you. Amen.

The questions below are to help families discuss this devotion. The questions are divided by age group as suggestions, but anyone could reflect on any of the questions as they desire.

Questions for Younger Children

• What important message did Paul want to tell people from other countries?
• What did Paul see in his dream at night that helped him know where to go next?

Questions for Elementary Age Children

• Even though Paul was different from the people in Asia Minor, what did they both have in common?
• Why do you think God gave Paul a dream to tell him to go to Europe and talk about Jesus?

Questions for Middle School and Above

• What can we learn from today’s devotion about telling people from other places about Jesus?
• How did the dream help Paul know that people in Europe needed to hear about Jesus, and what can we learn from that?