The Mother Who Knew Before He Told Her

In June 1849, seventeen-year-old Hudson Taylor wandered into his father's library in Barnsley, Yorkshire, looking for something to pass the time. He picked up a gospel tract, intending only to read the story and skip the moral. But a single phrase arrested him — "the finished work of Christ." At that moment, something broke open in the young man's heart, and he fell to his knees.

What Taylor did not know was that his mother, seventy miles away visiting friends, had felt an overwhelming burden to pray for her son that very afternoon. She locked herself in her room and refused to leave until she had the assurance her prayer was answered. When Hudson rushed home days later to share his news, she simply said, "I already know. I have been rejoicing for a fortnight."

She had seen him, as it were, under his fig tree — before he ever came looking for her.

This is the breathtaking claim Jesus makes to Nathanael: "Before Philip called you, I saw you." Not after Nathanael's confession. Not when he finally showed up. Before. While Nathanael sat beneath that fig tree, perhaps wrestling with Scripture, perhaps praying prayers he thought no one heard, Jesus already knew him — knew his honesty, his hunger, the sincerity buried beneath his skepticism.

No one comes to God unnoticed. Before we ever turn toward Him, He has already turned toward us.