Cover image: “Heaven’s Gift” by Yongsung Kim https://havenlight.com/collections/yongsung-kim.

For those who know Jesus Christ and His ways, we know that His kindness is paramount.  Children often experience this force of love that only He can give.  To them, it comes as naturally as a sunrise.  I’d like to share three profound experiences where children have witnessed that amazing love first hand…

Two-Year Old Speaks with Jesus

One of the cherished spiritual experiences in our family concerns the time that my barely 2-year-old son saw and spoke with Jesus.

I had been ill, and was lying on my bed. Danny was playing with Legos at the side of my bed, building a simple little “boat.”

Suddenly, and without any warning, he excitedly exclaimed,

“Jesus tumming! Jesus tumming!”

He then ran across my room to the window, eagerly pulling back the blinds and with great exhilaration repeated,

“Jesus tumming!” 

In a few seconds, he was back near me, his eyes gazing at the foot of my bed, and then moving upwards.

I was dumbfounded, not knowing what to say, because I couldn’t see or feel anything. I asked,

“Danny, can you see Jesus?”

He nodded reverently!  There were a few seconds of silence as Danny stared upwards in awe.  During those seconds, Danny’s eyes followed something moving a few feet away through a doorway and into the adjoining room.

 I managed to say,

“Well, Danny, – go talk to Jesus.  Show Jesus your boat.”

He picked up his project, walked to that spot in the adjoining room, and proudly presented his boat to an unseen being.  With shyness mixed with joy, he ran back to me giggling,

“Jesus like my boat!” 

Seconds later he went back there and talked some more. I don’t remember what he said next, except that he continued chattering with two-year old vocabulary while he was looking up at someone.  I could of course only hear his side of the conversation, but I knew that he couldn’t be making it up.

After a few minutes, that sweet conversation was over and Danny resumed playing normally, but I lay there absolutely astonished at what I had witnessed.

For the next two days, I tried to pump Danny with questions about Jesus.  He indicated how important it was to him, but he couldn’t communicate very well at age 2, and I couldn’t get much more information from him, because he just didn’t know the words to express his experience.

On the 3rd day, however, out of the blue, Danny said to me,

“Mommy, Jesus tame! But Jesus tum back!”

I’ve often pondered on why Jesus came to my little Danny, but I’m always amazed that the Lord would take time to look at a little Lego boat and talk to a two-year old.

Three- Year-Old Sees Jesus and Changes Mother’s Life

Nancy Farrer, a long-time family friend, shared a magnificent experience she and her little daughter had with Jesus 27 years ago:

“Clarke and I wanted 5 children, and when I became pregnant with number five, I remember telling him, ‘this is it, our family is complete.’  The pregnancy was uneventful until I went in for my first checkup appointment at about 12 weeks. The doctor discovered that I was carrying twins.  We were thrilled!

“By the time I was 20+ weeks, I was the size I would have been if I was full term with one.  I remember vividly thinking something was not right. I had felt some flutters of them moving inside me but I felt uneasy.

“At my next appointment the doctor listened for a heartbeat; any heartbeat, but there wasn’t one. He gave us the choice of a spontaneous abortion or to induce labor and deliver.  I chose the latter.”

“I delivered 2 baby girls on September 25, 1992. One was 8 oz., and the other 7.5 oz. I just remember as tiny as they were, they had all their fingers and toes. I was devastated!”

 “The next morning, I left the hospital with empty arms and later, my breasts full of milk. I could hear babies crying. I could hardly stand it. I became very depressed.”

“One morning, shortly after the birth, my little girl Amanda (3 years old)     came into our room and told me she had a dream.  She dreamt that she was climbing a tall ladder.  As she reached the top, she saw that Jesus was there.  He was holding both of our babies on His lap! 

“Her dream was SO profound to me. I knew that the Savior was keenly aware of our loss. “

“After several months I knelt and asked my Heavenly Father if I was ever going to have another baby. I was alone and I prayed out loud. The warm feeling, they talk about in the scriptures, happened. It was like my soul was being coated from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes with a power/warmth I had never felt before. The darkness I had felt left me. I KNEW we would be blessed again.  It took 9 months total time, but we were blessed again with another little girl.”[i]

What Does Jesus Say?

Emily Belle Freeman wrote a beautiful account of her friend’s experience.  She wrote:

“Every so often, the whole sky comes crashing down. That was the case recently for a dear friend of mine who unexpectedly found out that his 2-year-old daughter, Hope, had cancer.”                                                                                         

“Somewhere in the middle of chemotherapy and hospital stays and IV tubes, my friend and his daughter had a conversation familiar to everyone who has raised a young child. In his silliest voice, he asked:

‘What does the owl say?’

Hope replied,

‘Whoo, whoo!’

She giggled sweetly…My friend turned the page and asked,

‘What does the cow say?’                   

‘Moo, moo!’

Hope responded proudly and grinned from ear to ear…

“My friend looked up to read the next line, and suddenly the conversation took an unexpected turn. At that moment, a picture of Jesus on Hope’s bedroom wall caught his attention, and he asked an unplanned question:

‘Hopie,’ he stammered, trying not to give away his emotion,

‘What does Jesus say?’

It was a question he had never asked her before.

“As he waited with anticipation, Hope snuggled into his shoulder, opened wide her big blue eyes, and whispered,

‘Hold you. Jesus say, ‘Hold you.’”[ii]  

As we can see Jesus lends his embrace to children and their parents.

“I Feel Him All the Time”

 Recently I asked my then 6-year-old grandson Helaman, if he ever felt Jesus.  He just casually said,

“Oh yes, I feel Him all the time!” 

Somehow Jesus makes time to be with Helaman, inspect a Lego boat, deeply change a 3-year-old and her mother forever, and “hold” a 2- year-old with cancer.  We don’t know how He does it, but He does it, and blesses countless lives of children.                                                                                                                           

So Natural Yet So Powerful

Interaction with Jesus is so natural to many of the young ones around us that it is like the air they breathe.  We need to breathe more of that trusting, love-filled air.  No wonder the scriptures tell us to become more like children, …“for of such is the kingdom of God.”[iii]

[i] Nancy Farrer, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

[ii] http://www.ldsliving.com/A-2-Year-Old-with-Cancer-s-Unforgettable-Answer-to-What-Does-Jesus-Say/s/81541

[iii] Mark 10:14