The unusual noise I was hearing was coming from an airplane that was flying over my house. When I ran outside, I could tell by the way it was flying that there was something wrong with the plane. But I didn’t realize just how wrong things were going for the four men inside that small plane.
We sometimes can see and feel that things are not the way they should be in our lives. Like that airplane, we travel through this life in ups and downs and try to fix one thing here and another there. But many of us never recognize that our problems come from a serious mistake done in the past, and we cannot see the result of that serious mistake without God’s help.
A few minutes before I heard the plane over my house, the pilot had tried to land in the small landing field close to town. Trusting his flying skills, he had tried to land using only half the length of the field. He found he wasn’t going to make it and pushed the throttle to take off and try again. But at the end of the field a main road crossed it, and beyond it was the town in a valley. Just as the plane began to pick up speed, a truck on the road crossed in front of it. The pilot had to slow the plane down to let the truck pass, and this left the plane without enough speed for a normal takeoff. The plane crossed the road just behind the truck, with its wheels still on the ground. Then it took off, but the deadly mistake had already been made.
Many years ago the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, made a deadly mistake. They trusted they could do things their own way. God told them not to eat the fruit from a certain tree, otherwise they would die. But they didn’t trust God, and Satan made them feel that there was no danger in doing things their own way.
Perhaps that pilot also thought there was no danger in breaking the rules to show the passengers his skills. But he did not know that he would have a big truck in his way, and this would make everything turn out wrong. He was able to take off but could not gain enough altitude to avoid hitting the top of a tree. This caused a short circuit in the airplane’s electrical system and started a fire. People living near the landing field saw a passenger open the airplane’s door in the air to let smoke pour out of the cabin.
It doesn’t take long for our sinful natures to show up, since we are children of Adam and Eve. Being sinners, away from God and trying to pilot our own lives, what results can we expect? It is like flying a damaged airplane.
When I saw the damaged plane turning over my house and then heading down where the road passed, I did not know that the pilot was trying to reach the road to make an emergency landing. And he almost did . . . but there was that same truck again! Again it was right in the path of the airplane, and again the pilot had to change his plans. But there was no other place for a plane to land. It hit the tops of the trees, then nose-dived into the ground and exploded!
When I saw smoke coming from the place where I saw the airplane disappear, I knew what had happened. Many of us hurried to the crash site by following the smoke. What a terrible sight to see those four men, still alive and even talking, but in shock and terribly burned. Another airplane flew them to a city where there was a hospital, but there was little that could be done for them. They all died a few days later, the result of a deadly mistake.
Sin - Adam and Eve’s deadly mistake - entered God’s creation, and now every person is born with a nature that continues to sin. And we each face the penalty for our own sins - death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). But God in His wonderful love wants to forgive the sinner and give him eternal life. For this He gave His only begotten Son to die on Calvary’s cross. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). If you trust Him right now, you will not have to face the judgment for your sins, but will have everlasting life. The Lord Jesus gives us that promise in John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24), “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life.”
ML-05/05/1996