Three O'Clock Call

After an orphan named Jennifer shows pictures of her home and describes God as her Father, Grady McKay dismisses the idea. His own father has abandoned the family and has not contacted them for months. To Grady, comparing God to a father suggests that God might also disappear. Whit explains that earthly parents can disappoint their children, but God is a perfect Father who always remains faithful.

Whit invites Grady to help show Jennifer around Odyssey before she returns home. At the mall, Jennifer asks why her words bothered him. Grady questions how an orphan who has never known her parents can say anything good about fathers. Jennifer understands that Grady has been deeply hurt, but she insists that God is not like the father who left him.

Jennifer recalls a time when her orphanage lacked money for powdered milk. After reading that a father will not give his child a stone when he asks for bread, she prayed all day. The next morning, a package arrived from Grady’s Sunday school class filled with food, clothing, letters, and powdered milk. Jennifer believes God answered her through the people who sent the supplies. She offers to pray that Grady will also see a good Father at work.

At home, Grady’s younger sister Samantha keeps hoping their father will return. On Grady’s ninth birthday, the telephone rings at exactly three o’clock, but no one speaks. Samantha immediately wonders whether it is their father. The same silent call comes the next afternoon at three, and Grady begins to wonder too, though he tells Samantha to forget it.

When Grady sees Whit call his adult daughter merely to leave a loving message, he becomes more suspicious of the silent calls. At three o’clock that day, he speaks to the unknown caller as if it is his father. He admits that Samantha still cries and says that perhaps their father should come home. When the caller remains silent, Grady’s hope turns to anger, and he shouts before the line goes dead.

Grady and Samantha confront their mother at work. Kristi does not want to reopen the family’s pain and says she does not know where their father is. Grady denies that the silent caller is him, while Samantha continues wishing for his return. Kristi finally says the children may speak with him if he ever truly calls, but she wants the three of them to be happy together instead of waiting for someone who is gone.

Before Jennifer leaves Odyssey, she gives Grady her address and asks him to become her pen pal. She promises to keep praying for him. Grady excitedly says her prayer may be working because he believes his father has begun calling. Jennifer gently corrects him: she has not prayed for his earthly father to return, but for God to show Grady what His fatherly care is like. Grady rejects the distinction and hurries home before the next call.

At three o’clock, Grady answers and arranges to meet the silent caller at McAlister Park at noon the following day. He waits for hours, eventually falling asleep. In a dream, his father finally approaches, but the man’s face and voice become Whit’s. Grady wakes to discover that Whit really is standing over him. His father has never arrived.

Whit takes the disappointed boy home, but Grady asks how he was found. Returning from the airport after saying goodbye to Jennifer, Whit had felt unexpectedly led to pull over at the park. Grady realizes that God has answered Jennifer’s prayer in a way he did not expect. His earthly father has failed to appear, but God has sent someone trustworthy to find, protect, and care for him when he is alone.

Grady asks Whit to send his address to Jennifer because he now wants to become her pen pal. Back at the McKay home, a telephone-company employee explains the mystery: a computer malfunction has automatically called their number at the same time each day and left an open, silent line. The calls have never come from Grady’s father, but Grady’s hope has led him to recognize the Father who truly shows up.