A kitten, a few months old, somehow found its way into a shipping container, which is a very large container that gets stacked up on the decks of giant freight ships. We can only guess how the kitten got inside, but when the big steel door closed on the container, the kitten was in complete darkness and without food and water. The kitten likely meowed loudly for help, but through the steel walls of the container, no one would have been able to hear the frightened kitten meowing.
A large, powerful crane lifted the container onto the freight ship, and soon it left the Chinese harbor to cross the Pacific Ocean to North America. Traveling day and night, the journey would take three weeks. That is a long time for a kitten to be trapped in darkness without food and water, and the kitten became very weak and ill.
Living in darkness is to live in a world of loneliness and sadness. A person can live in the sunshine of this world and still have darkness deep inside the soul. In his soul’s darkness, he can only stumble and grope about, hoping to find a little happiness in what this world offers. The soul’s darkness comes from not knowing the Lord Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. “I am the light of the world,” the Lord Jesus said. “He that [follows] Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:1212Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)).
When dockworkers in the United States opened the container for inspection, to their surprise they found a barely alive little kitten. The poor thing was only skin and bones. One dockworker saw that something was wrong with the kitten’s eyes. He moved his fingers in front of its eyes as a test and realized the kitten had gone blind. He also saw that it was too weak to stand on its feet.
The dockworker felt sorry for the kitten and took it to an animal doctor’s office. The doctor decided to make every effort to save the kitten’s life. She washed its fur, put drops of medicine in its eyes, fed it milk with an eyedropper, and kept it warm and cozy. The kitten quickly started to recover. After a week of this loving care, the kitten improved quite a bit. Its eyesight returned, and with good food it was putting on a little weight and began filling out.
The kitten’s improvement is happy news, but when it was locked in the container, meowing for help, no help came for three weeks. When boys or girls or grown-ups realize they are in sin’s darkness and call out in faith to God, He will be there to help them immediately! “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:2121And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21)). God does not disappoint a call in faith, and that is happy news for each one of us.
The kitten still hasn’t been able to stand on its feet and walk, but the doctor feels it is just a matter of time before the kitten will be walking again. It can move around a little by rolling over. Since the kitten came from China, the animal doctor named the tiny kitten “Ni Hao,” which means “hello” in Chinese.
When the story got out of how Ni Hao survived three weeks at sea without food and water, many families offered to give the little traveler a home. Once the doctor says the kitten is healthy again, it will have a good home to go to.
We are all travelers to eternity. Those who have come to love the Lord Jesus Christ are traveling towards heaven to spend eternity with Him where there will be fullness of joy. There’s no darkness there and only happiness forever. However, those who refuse the Saviour’s love and grace are traveling to an eternity of darkness where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:1313Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 22:13)). Be wise and by faith take the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. Then you will escape sin’s darkness and terror and come into His wonderful truth and light.
ML-03/17/2013