It was just an ordinary day of a grandmother helping a grandchild clean her room. I was in Birmingham visiting my son’s family and my granddaughter, Peyton, wanted (well, maybe she was encouraged) to clean out her closet. It was early in the summer after her third-grade school year. The closet floor was piled high with clothes, shoes, and school “stuff” all the way up to her hanging clothes! I told her everything had to come out of the closet and then we would sort, throw away, and reorganize before putting it back. When we began to see the floor at the very bottom of the pile, I noticed some schoolwork that looked interesting with the title “Jesus is the Real Power (Not Magic)” in Peyton’s handwriting. I picked it up and was immediately mesmerized at this child-made book stapled together.

I said, “Peyton, what is this?”

Peyton very casually looked over and said “Oh… it’s a book I wrote last year”.

It certainly did not have the appearance of a casual book a typical 8-year-old would write in public school. I think I knew right then that it was special, so I said, “Go put this beside my bed in the guest room and I will have time to read it this afternoon.”

After a few more questions, I learned that Peyton’s teacher had assigned the students a book writing project where students could write about any topic. Peyton chose to write about the Trinity, but she also included her belief about Satan and about heaven.

After reading her book later that day…as a teacher myself … I knew that the magnitude of Peyton’s understanding of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit was advanced for her age. I continue even now to be amazed that an eight-year-old child grasped “God in three persons” …as many adults still struggle with that concept today as mature Christians.

Since that summer day, in 2008, I have shown Peyton’s book to many ministers and all of them have told me that her eight-year-old understanding of the Trinity was more advanced than many of their church members. Sometimes a child can show us a simple way of understanding something that appears to be complex. In the New Testament, I believe Jesus does the same.

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Peyton Gober graduated from Auburn University in May 2022, with a Bachelor of Science in Education, with a major in Exercise Science and minor in Psychology. She will stay at Auburn for her master’s degree in Exercise Science with a focus in Biomechanics. She will be working as a graduate assistant while completing her degree. Peyton currently attends Auburn Community Church.

Her early years were spent at Valleydale Church in Birmingham where she and her family were active. She was surprised that her Gram wanted to share her 8-year-old explanation of The Trinity that she wrote in third grade. But now, at 22 years old her hope is that every person who reads her story will have a deeper understanding of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. A portion of the sales from the book will be donated to her family’s non-profit, “Step by Step Ministry”.