I’ll never forget what I was doing when I met Bobby Bowden.  It was July 2007.  I was a full-time pastor and pursuing a doctorate degree at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.  This was a degree designed for those in full-time ministry, which means that we would usually be on campus during the summer months and the month of January.  The rest of the year we were reading and writing papers. 

I was staying on campus, away from my wife and two little boys.  I was living in a dorm room for two weeks and eating all my meals in the cafeteria.  I discovered it was one thing to do this when you are in college, but it’s a lot different when you are nearly 35.  I remember I was tired.  I had worked a great deal this week, and it was catching up to me.  I also remember the food I ate that night was not very good.  I was wishing I was home with my wife and two sons.  Since the food wasn’t luscious, I thought I would splurge and get some ice cream.  I went to the machine and loaded up my bowl.  I then turned around and was face to face with the legendary Hall of Fame college football coach, Bobby Bowden.

Why in the world was Bobby Bowden standing behind me waiting for ice cream?  It turns out he was a genealogy buff and had been attending a seminar on campus with his wife.  I stared in disbelief.  What should I do?  What should I say?  I had been a huge Florida State football fan when I was in high school.  I loved his Florida State teams and the coaches like Marc Richt, whom he had mentored and led to the Lord.  Bobby Bowden always caught my attention because he was a committed Christian who felt his number one calling was to lead people to Christ.  This was more than just a treat for a young preacher.  It was like receiving a Rolls Royce.

I’ll never forget how Bowden dealt with me so gently that day.  When I told him I was a preacher and would like his autograph, he stopped everything he was doing and signed one for me, but not just his name.  He wrote a personal message along with the autograph.  It reads this way:  “To Steven, May the Son Enfold You!  Bobby Bowden.”  Yet, he wasn’t finished.  He then paused to ask me a few questions.  He wanted to know where I was from and where I pastored.  He was so kind.  And yes, I paraded with this autograph in front of my other preacher friends the next day in class.  Even the professor was jealous.  I had been given a tremendous gift by God, a gift I still remember vividly to this day.

“May the Son Enfold You!”  In all my years of pastoring, I do not know that I have ever used the word “enfold” or heard another person use it in referring to Jesus.  I’ve studied the autograph for years, yet when I looked at it yesterday, the word leaped out on the page in a way it never had.  The word “enfold” means “to surround” or “envelope.”  It also means “to hold or clasp (someone) lovingly in one’s arms.”  Have you ever pictured Jesus’ love for you in this way?  Have you ever envisioned him “enfolding” you?  He does this more than we recognize.  His love for us is much stronger than we will ever comprehend.  Paul goes so far as to say that it “surpasses knowledge.” Think about that.  Science cannot come close to measuring the vast nature of God’s love for us in Christ.

What this means is that our Lord is closer than we realize.  He is present with us always.  Many times, he is “enfolding” us without our knowledge of it.  Like the Footprints poem says, he carries us, because we mean that much to him.  I needed that reminder yesterday from Coach Bowden, God rest his soul, of the countless times in my life Christ has “enfolded” me.  Did you need this reminder as well?  Might he be “enfolding” you today?