At last the longed-for words; “Yes, you may go barefoot today,” had come from Mother. She sighed and worried about glass and nails and slivers. But the children didn’t worry! It was a warm spring morning, and the boys rushed out for a game with their friends. Six-year-old Heather tagged along to join in the fun. Over the grass and vacant lot, over the wooden fence they scurried.
“Oh, ouch!” Heather had to stop a moment and held her foot up. She had rammed a big nasty sliver into her bare foot. “The boys will call me a sissy and leave me behind!” she thought as she quickly tried to pull out the sliver. She ran on after the boys, but her foot was soon hurting again and she knew that she had left part of the sliver in her foot. “Well, I won’t tell Mommy! It will really hurt if she tries to get it out!”
Heather went on for several days not telling anyone about how her foot hurt. She walked normally in front of Mommy and Daddy, but when they were not around she limped. At last Mother’s sharp eyes caught the limp. She quickly saw the greyish white swelling on her foot which Heather declared did not hurt at all. Grandmother was called in on the case and the two decided that Heather should visit the doctor right away.
After examining Heather’s foot the doctor was very serious as he said to Mother, “We’ll give it a try here at the office; but that infection is almost, if not already, into the bone. We may have to put her in the hospital.”
Poor Heather cried when she heard that. If only she had told Mother instead of letting that sliver work deeper into her foot! The “minor” operation on her foot that day in the doctor’s office was something she would not forget very soon.
Sin is like that nasty sliver, causing pain and sorrow in our whole lives. It will never be healed by anything good we do. In fact, our very nature is to keep on sinning. Just ignoring the problem is a serious mistake, as Heather learned with her foot. It only deepens the trouble. Why not settle it right now with the Lord? Tell Him all about it. He has the only cure. He gave Himself so that we can say "... the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
ML-10/12/1980