“Aren’t the birds pretty?” said three-year-old Margaret to her mother one beautiful day as they sat together in the garden. “See the robins? See that blue bird over there in the tree? I wish I could catch a bird. Will you help me catch a bird, Mommy?”
“Well, my father always used to say that if you could put salt on a bird’s tail you could catch it.”
“Did you ever catch one?” asked Margaret.
“No, I never tried,” said her mother.
“Didn’t you ever try?” said little Margaret, surprised. “If I could catch a bird, I’d try!” And with that she ran into the house to get the salt shaker off the kitchen table.
For a long time Margaret chased the birds, trying to put salt on their tails. Finally she got discouraged and ran over to her mother in tears. “They won’t stay still long enough for me to put salt on their tails,” she cried.
Mother scooped Margaret up into her arms and said, “That’s like trying to get to heaven by doing good works, isn’t it? We just aren’t able to do good, so we can’t get to heaven that way. We have to trust the Lord Jesus. He’s the only One who was always good, because He was God’s Son and He never did one sin. He died for us to wash away all the naughty things that we’ve done so we can go to heaven and live with Him there forever. Wasn’t that very, very kind of Him?”
Have you told the Lord Jesus that you are a sinner, and have you let him wash your sins away? Have you ever thanked Him for dying for you? “Not by works of righteousness [good things] which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)).
ML-10/27/1996