"JHN 3:16"

"JHN 3:16" was scrawled in pen in the grout between the tiles in the men's restroom. What struck me most was the intentional omission of the letter 'O'. Is the name John so recognizable that the 'O' is simply not necessary? Or did the fellow bathroom preacher not have that much time? But he did have time to carefully write the remainder of his message.

I once knew another 'Jon' who did not have an 'H' in his name. I asked him about the omission in his name and his reply was that when he was little his mom beat the 'H' out of him.

That is quite another story so we return to this bathroom preacher who wanted all to know that God has so loved the world. Is there any place we are more reminded of our humanness than a public bathroom? The very thing we long for, privacy in our own homes, we have to share publicly with others and it seems very degrading. Many simply curdle at the thought of public bathroom facilities. Every bathroom has the same signs, "Please notify the management if the bathroom is not clean." Is that helpful? Have you seen the things people do in a bathroom? Cleaning is not going to do the job. Notification will not help. We leave and have that unclean sensation for several minutes. It goes beyond unsanitary conditions. We have come face to face with how human we are and it shocks our pretense of civility.

In the very center of this unsuspecting place the reminder that God loves the world comes screaming off the wall. Here? Me? In this vile place? Can God meet us in a public restroom? God meet humanity for the first time in a stable. The equivalent of an animal public facility. The utter insensibility of such a beginning that God would utter his love from such a vile and baseless location. And I find once again God repeating the message in basically the same location nearly 2,000 years latter. I think the writer was not a preacher but a prophet in carefully omitting the "O". It was a reminder that God is "Omnipresent' at all times and even shows up where we, humanly speaking, are at our worst and still declares his love for us. No "O" is necessary. God can speak for himself.