Hi, my name is Granton and God gave me a special story about his love for us. I can’t talk yet so my daddy is writing the story for me. I hope you like it. Well, starting the story is the hard part because it started a very long time before I was born. I guess I will try to make the first part of this story as simple as I can. After God made the earth, he made people and everything was good. But the people made a bad choice. This choice made God sad and life became hard for people. The people sinned more and more. They sinned so much that God sent a flood to clean the earth of their mistakes and allow them to restart. It didn’t take long and people were sinning again. God wanted to do something to save people from their sins. Now there was this man named Abraham who listened to God. God blessed Abraham and told him that he would be the father of God’s chosen people. That is why Mommy and Daddy sing me the song about Father Abraham having many sons. Anyway, God’s chosen people, they were called the Israelites, would have this thing called the Passover. The Passover is another long story but it is very interesting and you can read about it in a wonderful book called the bible. In short, Passover celebrates a day in history when God passed over Israelites houses and spared their first born sons. At three o’clock on the day of Passover a priest would kill a lamb and its blood would be a sacrifice for the sins of the people. This went on for a long time. Until God decided that he would sacrifice something for the people that would wash their sins away forever. God had to give away something that he loved very much to save the people from their sins. He gave the most important gift ever, his only son. His son’s name is Jesus and he grew up in the world but he was different from all the other kids who have ever grown up because Jesus never sinned. Jesus had lived a perfectly pure life and at three o’clock on the day of the Passover he died for us. God sacrificed his son on the same day of the year that the priest used to sacrifice a lamb. His blood was offered for our sins just like the lambs blood. Daddy didn’t know about Jesus and the lamb being sacrificed at the exact same time until he heard about it in church a week before he had to take me to the hospital. A few days later, just to make sure Daddy got the message, God told Daddy’s old coach about how Jesus was sacrificed at the exact same time as the priest sacrificed the lamb and daddy’s coach told daddy. Anyway, that is why Jesus is known as the Lamb of God. The good news is Jesus came back to life and he is our savior. Now I bet you are wondering what this has to do with me. Well, other than the obvious that Jesus died to save me just like he died to save you, my story is a little different because God used me to show my mommy and daddy how much God loves all of us. You see a few months ago my mommy was at this big party with a lot of other girls. Mommy was praising God at the party and she got to thinking about how Father Abraham had to put his only son on an alter to sacrifice him. Lucky for them, God told Abraham to stop and his son was not harmed. God have Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead. My Mommy loves me very much and she admitted to God that she could not give me up. She told God she just couldn’t do it. Well, Mommy and Daddy did not know it but God had already made me a little different from other kids because my body does not fight germs like most kids bodies do. When I get sick it is very scary and I can die. Guess what happened. That’s right I started getting sick. My mommy and daddy started worrying more and more about me. They just couldn’t take it anymore and they took me to the hospital one the weekend. Do you know what weekend it was? I didn’t think you would figure it out. It was Easter weekend, the same weekend all God’s children celebrate God sacrificing his only son for us. Mommy and Daddy were so scared when they found out I could die. Then it hit them, God let his only son die for them on that same weekend. They are even more thankful now that they have personally dealt with just the possibility of losing a child, me. But, that is not the end of this story. There is even more. Mommy and Daddy have been praying to God. They have been asking him to make me better so I can stay here with them. Actually, a lot of people have been praying for me, more then I will ever know. All my friends and family and all their friends and families and so on and so on have been praying for me all over this country. Even people in other countries have been praying for me. Can you believe that little kids in a country called India have been praying for me. They didn’t even eat one day because they were praying that I could stay with my mommy and daddy and these kids don’t even have a mommy and daddy of their own. Well, God is taking care of me and I am in a very good hospital. The doctor’s here have thought of a way where I can get better. I would have to get someone else’s blood out of their bone marrow. After I get this blood I will be all better and can play outside with other kids and stay with mommy and daddy. I think it is real neat how God gave us his son, Jesus, as a gift to us and Jesus’ blood saved us. I went to the hospital on the same weekend we celebrate God’s ultimate gift to us. I also think it is neat that Jesus’ blood saved us and someone else’s blood will save me here on earth. You see, God is in control and there is a reason for everything he allows to happen. God gave his son to save us and God used me to show Mommy and Daddy of his amazing unthinkable love.