When Katie was nine years old, she was given a birthday book for her birthday. “I will get all my friends to put their names in it,” she said.
Whenever any of Daddy’s and Mommy’s friends came to visit, Katie always asked them to sign her book.
One day Katie’s uncle came to dinner, and out came the book as usual.
When Uncle Jim had put his name against his birthday date he said, “And now I’ll put my name against my second birthday.” Turning over the pages to another date, he wrote his name and added, “Born again.”
“What does that mean?” asked Katie. “How can you have two birthdays?”
Uncle Jim smiled. “When I was just as old as you are now, Katie, my Sunday school teacher asked me to read a verse to her from the Bible. It was this: ‘Ye must be born again.’ I didn’t know what it meant, but she told me that if I believed that Jesus died for my sins and asked Him to forgive me, He would take them all away. She said it was like being born again and being in God’s family. ‘Wouldn’t you like to be in God’s family, Jim? Wouldn’t you like to ask the Lord Jesus to come into your heart right now?’ she asked me.
“I knew that even though I was only nine, I had done lots of wrong things and that I needed to have them forgiven. So Katie, I said that I would like to ask Him—and I did. That was my second birthday, and that was the date I have written in your book.”
Uncle Jim didn’t say any more just then. He could see that Katie was thinking hard.
A few weeks later, Uncle Jim came to dinner again. Out came the birthday book. “Would you like to see what is written in my book now?” Katie asked him.
“Yes, please,” said Uncle Jim. Taking the book from her he ran his fingers through the pages. Against the date when he had been to dinner the last time, was printed in capital letters, “MY SECOND BIRTHDAY,” and underneath was Katie’s name.
“I just did what your Sunday school teacher told you to do, Uncle Jim. I do believe what Jesus said, and now I am in His family, too.”
Uncle Jim gave Katie a great hug. “That’s just fine!” he said. “And now you will be able to tell lots of others about second birthdays and how they can be in God’s family.”
What about you? Could you put your name against two birthday dates? If you do what Uncle Jim’s Sunday school teacher told him to do, then you may.
—Our Treasury
ML-09/17/1978