The station wagon filled with happy youngsters bound for a late fall outing labored carefully up the mountain curves. “Dear me!” exclaimed their young driver, “I think I’ve missed my turn for the lunch spot I had planned. How about the wide place in the road ahead? Anybody hungry?”
The response was a deafening “YES!” City dwellers, all of them, these children rarely came to the beautiful mountain heights, and the car could hardly contain their excitement. No sooner had the wheels stopped than four boys, three in their early teen years, burst out into the crisp sunshine, adventure bound.
“Hey. Mickey, look at that waterfall down there!” yelled Bud. “Let’s go!”
Ignoring the calls to wait, they foolishly plunged down the bank for a closer look. How like some of the boys and girls of today they were, who think only of pleasure for the moment and don’t pay attention to warnings. “Live for NOW,” they say. “Have your fun and worry later!”
Our boys, skidding recklessly down the steep bank, realized too late that there was a sharp drop below... the bottom being the rocks and icy waters and the “neat” waterfall. Furthermore, it was a long way down. They clawed in vain for something to grab that might stop their plunge. “My whole life—my sins anyway—flashed to my mind, and I really prayed,” Bud confided later. Two of the boys managed to slide in a curve, helping to slow themselves, but that was not the case with Mickey and Scott.
The other boys and the leader were still back at the car fixing lunch. They were not aware of the trouble that Mickey, Scott, Bud and Joe had gotten themselves into. It was decided to eat without them.
Not until lunch things were being packed away did Bud and Joe appear. White-faced and solemn, they reported their fall. “Mickey,” they said, “can’t seem to walk, and Scott is groggy, but maybe a sandwich might help....”
It was then that our friend in charge looked over the bank—and gasped. “I think I’d better call the fire department. There’s no way I could go down there!”
The fire department soon arrived. Excited but relieved, the boys thought the problem was solved. However, the firemen soon returned. “The one boy has a broken leg, and it’s too steep for us to bring him out. We’ll just have to lift him from above,” was the fireman’s serious report. They radioed for a “chopper.”
The little troop of boys and their leader grouped together for prayer. Never were they all so much in earnest. Again we are reminded of those who madly rush after sinful pleasures... until perhaps they run into serious trouble. Maybe they make some promises to God and try to be “good” for a while, but then soon forget them. The sinner is helpless to get free from Satan’s grasp by his own power. No, help must come from above. How good it is to read in the Bible that God’s ears are open unto our cries for mercy. “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:1313And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (Luke 18:13). “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6). God, looking down, saw our desperate need and sent His own beloved Son to lift us from the pit of sin. Just as the helicopter later carefully lifted our suffering friend Mickey from the dangerous rocks, our blessed Saviour made Himself fully responsible to lift us up and away from Satan’s grasp. He did this by taking the punishment for our guilty sins upon His own pure self and enduring God’s wrath against them. Therefore, the saved sinner can say, “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay.” Psalms 40:22He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. (Psalm 40:2).
Are you on that fatal slide to the pit of hell, or have you taken the lifeline from above—Jesus, the Son of God?
ML-10/09/1983