It is nice fun to play in the snow and make-believe to clean the door-step. There is no danger in that, but to get lost in the snow is a different matter. Flossie, like a good many other young folks I know, was very fond of getting her own way, thinking she knew better than anyone else. Mother sometimes allowed her to do so, because she thought it might teach her a much-needed lesson. It was a dull, dreary afternoon. Flossie got tired of everything, and wanted to go to the store, a mile away, to buy some toys. Mother said, “No,” for she saw that a storm was brewing, but Flossie flattened her nose against the window-pane, and said she was sure it was not. Then she teased her mother for the next half-hour, until mother said,
“Very well, Flossie, go; but I am sure you will regret it.”
Half an hour afterward she was on the road, but the wind was cold and the dark gray sky seemed to get darker and darker. The fleecy snowflakes began to fall, first singly, then faster and faster until they came down in a blinding, confusing crowd that whirled round and round the self-willed little maiden, until she could hardly keep the path, and her courage sank at every step, her lip began to quiver, and two great big tears rolled down her cheeks and fell on the deepening snow. Suppose she lost her way, and never saw father or mother or Johnnie or Tommy again! Then the wind grew louder, and sobbed and wailed through the trees by the roadside, and Flossie, now thoroughly tired and frightened, sank down among the snow and sobbed aloud.
What a good thing it is that mothers do not cease to love the self-willed and naughty children! Herein is their love, a picture of the divine love. Two of the most wonderful truths ever made know to men are—
1.God Loved the World.
2.Christ Died for Sinners.
But when Jesus came, the men of this world “hated Him without a cause.” Do you love Him?
While Flossie was thinking about mother, mother also was thinking abort Flossie. She had been watching all oft time, and knew just what would happen, so just when the little girl had given up hope, a messenger sent by her loving parent, found her in her despair, picked her up, and took her safely home. And the in the doorway stood mother
Ready to Forgive.
That is just the attitude of God toward every repentant sinner who comes back to Him. By nature we like to take our own way which leads us away from God and leads us into sin, so that we are
Guilty as well as Lost.
Still God loves sinners and waits to save them.
ML 12/31/1939