A seminary professor was on vacation with his wife in Gatlinburg, TN. One morning, they went for breakfast at a little restaurant. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” But sure enough, the man did cove over to their table.

“Where are you folks from?” said the stranger.
“Oklahoma,” they answered.
“Great to have you here in Tennessee,” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?”
“I teach at a seminary,” the professor replied.
“Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a really good story for you.”

And with that, the older gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple The professor groaned and thought to himself, Great, just what I need – another preacher story!

The man started, “See that mountain over there?” pointing out a restaurant window. “Not far from the bottom of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked, ‘Hey boy, who’s your daddy?’ But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast, the boy got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about the young man, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, ‘Son, who’s your daddy?’ The whole church got quiet; you could have heard a pin drop. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ The new preacher though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, he said this to the scared little boy. ‘Wait a minute! I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a good inheritance. Go and claim it.’ The boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, ‘Who’s your Daddy?’ he’d just tell them, ‘I’m a child of God.’”

The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, “Isn’t that a great story?”
The professor responded, “it really was.”
As the man turned to leave he said, “You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably would never have amounted to anything!” And he walked away.

The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. He called the waitress over and asked, “Do you know that man who just left that was sitting at our table?”
The waitress grinned and said, “Of course. Everybody here knows him. That is Ben Hooper. He’s the former governor of Tennessee!”