Little Joey was out for a walk with his mother one bright spring morning. Merrily he skipped along in front of her enjoying the sunshine, the flowers and the singing of the birds. He loved these times alone with his mother.
“Look, Mommy!” he shouted. “How pretty!” and his little hand grasped a cluster of white lilacs which grew near the path. The next moment, however, his face grew red with fright, and he dashed the flowers to the ground. “It stings, it stings!” he cried.
A busy little bee in search of honey was at that moment sucking nectar from the lilac blossoms when Joey’s hand disturbed him. In a moment he had driven his sharp sting into the child’s hand.
Mother dried her little boy’s tears and comforted him. Then she said, “Now, my boy, let this teach you a lesson. Many pretty things have sharp stings.”
Often Satan makes some things appear very pretty, just as he did to Eve in the garden of Eden. “When Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat;” but she didn’t see the sting of sin that went with it.
The Bible says, “The sting of death is sin.” (1 Cor. 15:5656The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56).) Everyone of us has been stung by sin, and the only remedy for sin is the blood of Jesus.
ML-04/17/1977