Bruce and Reggie were the best of pals! They liked to do everything that they could together. Reggie was four years old, and Bruce was three years old.
One day Reggie said, "Let’s hunt lions and bears and things!"
"Okay!" Bruce answered bravely. “They’re in the woods, ‘course, so that’s where we’ll have to go to hunt ‘em."
Soon the two little chums were walking softly through the woods just outside of town with big stick guns over their shoulders.
"Bang! Bang! I betcha I got that squirrel" bragged Reggie.
"But where are the lions and bears?" Bruce wanted to know.
"C’mon! We’ll find ‘em. They’re in the thickest part of the woods," answered Reggie.
After a while, the boys discovered that they were hungry, and decided to go home. Turning about they started back the way they had come. After walking what seemed a very long way Reggie stopped, and said, "That’s funny! There’s getting more woods all the time! Maybe we ought to go this way." So they turned to another direction.
"I’m getting awfully tired. Aren’t we almost home?" finally Bruce asked.
"Whee! I’m tired too!" Reggie answered as they both sat down on the ground to rest. "I didn’t know we came so far."
The two boys sat leaning against a log, and before they knew it they both fell sound asleep.
At home telephones were ringing, the boys’ mothers were crying, and policemen were asking questions. The yard and street were full of friends and neighbors getting ready to start out with the policemen to hunt for Bruce and Reggie.
Finally two hundred and fifty men started out to find the lost boys. When they reached the woods they spread out into a long line and carefully began their search. Almost an hour went by when from the thickest part of the woods came a shout that soon passed along the line to every man—"FOUND!"
Bruce and Reggie were still sound asleep when two big men picked them up and started to carry them home. As they hurried homeward the sky was filling with dark clouds, and the wind was beginning to warn of a real storm coming. Less than an hour after the boys were found, a blizzard swept down upon the woods and town. But Reggie and Bruce were safe at home with their mothers!
Another storm is coming—a very terrible storm! It is God’s judgment upon those who have not believed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! Like Bruce and Reggie, many boys and girls do not realize that they are lost in their sin, and God’s Word speaks of them as being asleep in their sin.
How wonderful that Reggie and Bruce were found before the storm broke! And, oh! it was less than an hour before the storm that they were found! Have you been found? God’s storm of wrath and judgment may be less than an hour away! "Awake thou that sleepest!" (Eph. 5:1414Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Ephesians 5:14)).