“Stay on the bus,” were the last words the school bus driver had said as he stepped out into the whirling blizzard. Almost immediately he was out of sight, and the children on the bus were alone. “I’ll be able to follow the fence line back to the last crossroad,” he had explained to them. “There is a small store there where I can call for help. I’ll be okay, and you will be too, if you just stay on the bus.”
The blizzard had hit suddenly with almost no warning in this farming area of Canada. It was snowing hard when the busload left school, but that wasn’t unusual in this part of the country. However, soon after they got out of town the full fury of the blizzard had made driving farther impossible. When the driver had pulled over to the side of the road, the bus had gotten stuck. Even with the help of the bigger boys, no amount of pushing could move it. The only thing left to do was to go for help.
Being alone on the bus was fun for the children for a while... that is, until it got cold. The bus driver had shown Mark, a junior in high school, how to start the engine to run the heater. He did this when it got really cold, but he was being careful so that they wouldn’t run out of gas.
Hour after hour passed with no one coming to their rescue. Some of the younger children got scared after it got dark and started to cry. The older ones tried to calm their fears by telling stories and singing songs to get their minds off the problem. But when it got to be nine o’clock and there still was no sign of help, even the older children were beginning to worry. And by then everybody was hungry and thirsty. It had been a long time since lunch.
However, they had not been forgotten. It was just that this was the worst blizzard in many years. Although the driver had finally gotten back to the store, he discovered the phone was out of order, so he couldn’t call for help.
There were many worried mothers and fathers who had called the school and then the police when the bus did not arrive. But since no one knew where the bus was, no one could help.
Neither the police nor the parents could help the children since they didn’t know where they were. But there is Someone who knows not only where you are this very minute, but He knows everything about you. He can see what you are doing and knows what you are thinking right now. This Person is God. When He looks down from heaven at you, what does He see? Does He see a boy or a girl still having their sins on them? He does if you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. The Bible says of the sinner, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Jeremiah 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). Is this what He sees? If so there is a way this can all be changed. The Lord Jesus wants you to believe in Him, to accept Him as your Saviour and then know that your sins are all forgiven. All this is possible because of what the Lord Jesus has done for sinners like you and me. He loved sinners so much that He was punished on the cross for all who would trust Him. His blood shed there can wash away all your sins. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7). If you will ask the Lord Jesus to wash your sins away, then you will not have to be punished for them since He already was. It was the bus driver waiting in the store who first heard the noise of the powerful snowplow above the roar of the storm. He ran out to the plow and told the men driving it exactly where the bus was stranded.
“I’m glad you heard the plow, because in this storm we can’t find a thing,” the snowplow driver said. “Come with us to make sure we find the bus. We have blankets and food.”
The snowplow moved slowly down the road to where the bus was stuck. Even the plow kept getting stuck and had to keep backing up and lunging forward to break through the drifts. Finally the almost-hidden shape of the bus at the side of the road could be seen. If the bus driver had not been with the plow, they probably would have passed it.
It was a happy bunch of children who welcomed the driver back. He passed out the food and blankets, and soon they were all feeling better. “We will still have to wait out the storm here on the bus,” he explained to them, “but now we will wait together.”
It was a long night for the children, but at least they had something to eat and could keep warm and protected in the bus.
ML-02/24/1985