Wham! The baseball bat sent the golf ball bouncing across the backyard and into the bushes at the edge of the woods. Russ and Lee had decided to play golf, but since they were very young they had no golf clubs and were using their baseball bats instead. They had set up a three-hole course and had been having fun, until they lost the ball in the bushes.
“I can’t find it,” said Lee, smacking the tall grass and weeds with his bat as he looked for it.
Russ went into the high weeds a little farther to look under some bushes. All of a sudden he let out a yell and came racing back into the yard toward the house with Lee following close behind. He had stepped on a yellow jackets’ nest and the angry wasps came swarming out, stinging both boys quite badly.
Mom comforted the little fellows, put medicine on their stings, and cautioned them to stay away from the nest.
When the boys were feeling a little better, they were looking over their stings and grumbling about those yellow jackets. Lee had more stings because he was younger and hadn’t been able to run away as fast as Russ. “We ought to get rid of that nest,” said Russ. Lee agreed. They thought they could destroy the nest if they hit it really hard with their bats.
Soon they were back in the bushes and had found the nest again. Lee stooped down to get a better look at it just as Russ swung his metal bat toward it. He missed the nest, but as the bat swung up it hit Lee just below his eyebrow.
Blood was everywhere! The boys came screaming back to Mom. She cleaned up Lee the best she could and drove him quickly to the medical center. The doctor sewed up the wound with 18 tiny stitches, took x-rays of Lee’s head, and gave him a tetanus shot.
Poor Lee was in sorry shape! He was covered with wasp stings and now had a bandage around his head. He thought he might even die! And what would happen to him then, he wondered. He knew he had not asked the Lord Jesus to save him from his sins as he should have. He felt sure he wouldn’t go to heaven if he died. Even though he was just a little boy, he was very concerned about his soul. God tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 9:1010The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10). And Lee was afraid he might have to meet God in his sins. He knew he would have to be punished for them in that awful place the Bible calls hell. And that would be forever. But he also knew the Lord Jesus loved him very much and wanted to be his Saviour so his sins could be washed away. Then he could live with Jesus in heaven.
It wasn’t long before he accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. I hope you will do that too.
ML-10/16/1994