There were three of us missionaries visiting in Guyana, South America. This is the only South American country that has English as its official language, so we were kept busy passing out English gospel tracts and Bibles.
One morning while in the area of Georgetown, which is the capital city, we decided to take a walk along the seawall or dike. This seawall has an important job. It holds the Atlantic Ocean back from flooding the towns and cities along the coast of the country. Much of the coastline is several feet below sea level, and when the tide is in, the waves will sometimes wash over the wall.
However, on this particular morning, the tide was out, and we could walk quite a ways on the hard, damp sand of the ocean floor. We strolled out over the sand, looking at all the interesting shells and other things left behind by the out-going tide. There were tide pools of water here and there for us to explore too, and sometimes we found small fish and other sea creatures trapped in these pools. However, when the tide came back in, these trapped sea creatures would be set free to once again swim out into the ocean to hunt for their food.
As we wandered around, looking into these interesting tide pools to see what we might find swimming around, we heard a noise that sounded different from anything we had heard. When we went to see what it was, we found that it was a large fish, about twelve inches long, trapped in a plastic bag that was partly underwater. The poor fish was trying as hard as it could to free itself from that plastic bag by flapping and flopping about. But no matter how hard it tried, it wasn’t able to free itself. That plastic bag was its enemy, and soon the fish would become weaker and weaker, until finally it would die. That fish needed a caring friend to help it.
This made us think of boys and girls, young people and grown-ups who are trapped in their sins by Satan, their enemy. The Bible says of the sinner, “His own [sins] shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be [trapped] with the cords of his sins” (Proverbs 5:2222His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. (Proverbs 5:22)). Like the fish trapped in the plastic bag, those of us who do not know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour are trapped by the cords of sin. The poor fish couldn’t free itself, and we cannot free ourselves either. We need a caring Friend to help us.
We all felt sorry for the trapped fish, and the Guyanese man with us bent down, picked up the plastic bag with the fish inside and set the fish free in the tide pool. The pool was large enough for the fish to swim freely around until the tide came back in, and then it would have the freedom of the whole Atlantic Ocean once more.
The fish needed a caring friend to give it liberty and save it from dying inside the plastic bag. God has provided a loving Friend for you and me. But He is far more than just a friend; He is the Saviour for sinners as well—the Lord Jesus Christ. His deep love for sinners took Him to the cross where He died and shed His blood to take away our sins. Will you let Him set you free from your sins?
ML-08/04/2013