Julie was looking around for something to do while her mother was busy fixing dinner. She was trying to be good and helpful to her mother. She had already done some dusting and set the table for dinner. Now she was all nice and clean, having just had a bath and gotten a clean dress on. Daddy would be home from work soon, and then they would be eating dinner.
Walking out into the backyard, Julie saw that the birdbath had nearly dried up.
“I know,” she thought, “I’ll fill up the birdbath so the birdies can have a drink.”
As she ran to get the watering can, she remembered what Mother had said to her after she had gotten cleaned up for dinner: “Don’t play in water, because you always get wet.”
“I’m sure Mother won’t call this playing in water,” she thought to herself. “This is really helping.”
She put as much water in the watering can as she could carry, then poured it into the birdbath. She had to stand on an old wooden box to pour the water.
She made another trip to the faucet to fill the can. This time she got a little more water. Slowly she poured it into the shallow bath.
“I think one more can will fill it,” she said to herself as she ran back to the garden faucet again. Soon she returned and, climbing back up on the box, she began to empty the can one last time.
But there was one important thing that she had not noticed. The birdbath was not sitting evenly on its stand. It was slightly tipped to one side, so that while on the opposite side it looked like it was only partly full, the side closest to her was nearly spilling over. As Julie poured in that last can of water, the water poured over the full side, right down the front of her clean dress. It surprised her so much that she stepped back suddenly off the box, losing her balance and falling right into the flower bed!
“Oh dear, now what will Mother say?” she said out loud, picking herself up and looking at her wet, mud-splashed dress and dirty shoes.
“What do you think I’m going to say, Julie?” said her mother who had come outside just then.
“I was trying to help you by filling the birdbath,” explained Julie, nearly in tears. “I didn’t mean to make all this mess.”
“You never mean to make messes,” answered Mother, “but when will you remember that the best way to help me is always to do what I tell you? Come on in now, and change your dress.”
Julie was only trying to help, but she really was disobeying her mother. Are you doing the very same thing to God? Are you trying to do your very best to please Him, but are actually disobeying Him instead? Some folks think they can earn their way to heaven by doing good deeds. But the Bible explains what God says about this idea: “All [your] righteousnesses [good things you do] are as filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6).
What God asks us to do is to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. If even the best things that we do are looked at by God as “filthy rags,” how can we ever expect to please Him? We can’t, unless we follow His instructions given to us in the Bible. There He tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ already has done everything that’s needed for us to be accepted into heaven. The Lord Jesus loved us so much that He went to the cross to be punished for sinners like us. To obey Him we must admit that we are sinners and cannot please Him, then accept what He has already done for us. If we believe that He was punished there for our sins, then we can know for sure that we are saved. “To obey is better than sacrifice [to suffer loss].” 1 Samuel 15:2222And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22).
ML-10/09/1983