Do you know what skis are? All our northern readers will be ready to tell that they are two long thin pieces of wood strapped to one’s feet. They are turned up slightly at the front end, so that you can go skimming down snowy hills like the wind. It really is exciting. I used to think so when I watched the boys whizzing down the hill behind our place.
My brother made me a pair of skis out of the curved staves of an old bael, and I took some wobbly slides down a hill about two feet high. I fell many times, but of course that was because I had not proper skis. At least I said so.
“Why don’t you ask Mother to buy you proper skis?” asked my brother.
That set me thinking. Skiing wasn’t all fun. There were falls and spills far more serious than mine, and there were long toilsome hills to go up after the fun of going down. Even little hills made my heart go pitty-pat sometimes. But everyone else had skis, and so, just for the sake of appearance, I asked for a pair too.
What happened next? My mother knew me pretty well. She knew my timid heart and wobbly legs, and peaps my pride too, and my desire to be like others. I asked often for skis but I did not get them, and honestly I did not care too much. I couldn’t blame my old skis if I had good ones!
Do you know, I think there are many children who ask for salvation like that, but God who knows the secrets of the heart, knows that they ask because somebody told them to, or because their friends are saved. In their hearts they are afraid if they really did get saved, people would expect too much from them.
If you ask just once for God’s free salvation you will get it, if you really mean it. Peter really meant it when he felt himself sinking in the stormy waters and cried, “Lord, save me!” The blind man really meant it, when he lived in darkness and said, “Lord, that mine eyes may be opened.” The leper really meant it when he felt the awfulness of his disease and said, “Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean.” All of them received the blessing at once.
Do you realize that you are sinking, blind and incurably diseased by sin? Just one cry and He will save you. God hears the cry of the heart, not just the words of the lips.
ML 01/29/1956