“Hide and seek” is a favorite game of children everywhere. Three-year-old Tiger Fawley was having a wonderful time playing this at home with his nine-year-old sister Scarlett. When he noticed a watertight suitcase, he decided to crawl inside and shut the lid. His thirteen-year-old brother Jack helped him get it closed. But trouble was ahead! When the lid slammed shut, it locked in place with the little boy inside.
Tiger was not scared. It was an interesting hiding place. He just curled up inside and waited. But the voices outside his suitcase became very worried.
Jack knew exactly where Tiger was. He knew that because the suitcase was locked, Tiger was in trouble, so he called his mother Donna.
When their mother saw what had happened, she was terribly frightened. She said everything was in “a mad panic.” The suitcase had a combination lock, and in her fright she couldn’t remember the code. How could they help Tiger get out? She was afraid that he would suffocate in such a small space. So she rushed to get a drill and told Tiger to move over as far as he could to one side of the suitcase so she could drill holes in the other side. She managed to do this with trembling hands, and the drill never touched Tiger. But Donna still couldn’t get the suitcase open! She tried to pry it open with a spade, but she was not strong enough to force it open.
“What do you want in there?” his sister Scarlett called to Tiger. Tiger just giggled. “I could do with a flashlight,” he told her. But for his mother Donna, this was no laughing matter.
Donna quickly got the suitcase with its precious contents into her car and started out for the nearest fire station. Tiger needed more than a flashlight. He needed someone to help him out of his prison. Even though he was not worried, he was trapped, and his family couldn’t do anything about it.
Boys and girls sometimes are not at all concerned about being trapped in their sins. But if they do not know they are sinners, that is even more serious. None of us can free ourselves from our sins. Our own efforts can never save us. Trying to do good things or going to Sunday school or getting rid of bad habits does not make us ready for heaven. We cannot escape the punishment for our sins unless we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tiger’s mother decided to turn for help to someone bigger and stronger than she was. She did not even stop to put on a pair of shoes. Even though it was March and still cold outside, she was in her bare feet when she drove up to the Whitehall Fire Station. She hurriedly got that suitcase out of the car and began pulling it anxiously to the front door. The firemen looked up when they saw her coming, wheeling that heavy suitcase.
What a strange story this frightened woman blurted out to the firemen! At first they thought she was joking with them. She claimed her little boy was inside, and never in the time they had been firefighters had someone come with such an unusual problem. But as soon as they realized she was serious, they got out their tools. Two big, husky firemen quickly pried open the case. Fire-service spokesman Ian Bailey says that Tiger popped out looking hot and sweaty but remarkably calm. So everyone cheered, and the firefighters gave him a soft drink and a cookie.
I know everyone was glad to see Tiger safe and unharmed. He probably likes to talk now about the big firemen who helped him out of his difficulty. Do we love to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ and all He did for us? He saw sinners in need of salvation. This was a need far, far greater than the problem of little Tiger trapped in a suitcase. We were in danger of being lost forever, and there was no easy answer to our need. The only way we could be saved was by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was willing to suffer on the cross, to give His own life and to be punished by God for our sins. Now He offers a way of escape to anyone who will believe in Him.
Aunt Jenny had been painting a picture all morning. It was an oil painting of the barn, lake and woods which she could see from her living room window. The picture was about half finished as she put her brushes away to stop for lunch. As she stood back to study the picture, her little niece Patti came running into the living room.
Patti saw Aunt Jenny looking at the picture. She stopped and looked at it, too, and said, “That’s a pretty sky, Aunt Jenny. Are you going to put God in it?”
Aunt Jenny did not expect that question, so she asked, “What do you mean, Patti?”
“Well,” answered Patti, “if God lives up above the sky, shouldn’t you put Him in your sky picture?”
Patti did not know what King David said about God in Psalm 139. King David said that God is everywhere! He said that God is before me and behind me, He is above me and beneath me. How can I run away from Him? If I rise up to heaven, He is there. If I go to the very deepest, He is there. Even the darkness cannot hide me from Him, because darkness and light are both the same to God.
Yes, King David found out that God is everywhere! He saw him when he woke up and in everything he did during the day. So King David just talked to God and said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:2324).
I hope Aunt Jenny and Patti make the wonderful discovery that King David made. Have you made that discovery too?
ML-07/17/2005