I Met Gilligan

Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met? I met Gilligan once. That is, I met Bob Denver, the star of “Gilligan’s Island.” I was eight years old and in a children’s hospital for some tests. Mr. Denver was in town doing a theater production, and, being so popular among the primary school set, he came by the hospital to sign autographs.

Most of us have a favorite story of some brief encounter with a celebrity. We talk with some pride about having met them. It gives us a feeling of importance, of having done something that few others have—maybe even the illusion that some of that fame or talent might have rubbed off on us.

Of course, the impression left by such a meeting is always hopelessly one-sided. I seriously doubt that Bob Denver has ever told a wide-eyed group of friends about the time he met me.

Given our excitement at meeting people who are famous in mere human endeavors, it is sad that we tend to speak so little of knowing the Lord of all creation. Paul said, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of know­ing Jesus Christ my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). The apostle stood before governors and kings, but his greatest thrill was to know the Son of God.

And unlike those chance meetings with celebrities who will never remember us, Christians have a relationship with a Savior who is deeply interested in us. “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Timothy 2:19). “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11).

No matter who I meet, it can never equal the joy of knowing and being known by Jesus.