TWO TEENAGE boys, Tom and Robert, were spending their holidays at a lakeside inn. Both were keen “bird watchers” and one day they spotted a raven’s nest on a narrow ledge, half-way down a sheer rock precipice. Determined to secure some of the raven’s eggs for their egg collections, they returned the next day along with a helper from the inn and a long rope.
The rope was soon adjusted around Tom’s body, and when it was securely knotted, he backed away from his companions who were holding it until he reached the edge of the precipice. Then with his feet against the wall of rock and his body at an angle to it, he “walked” backwards down the face of the cliff, his whole weight leaning on the rope, held by his friends above.
Down, down he went until he reached the nest; and as the raven flew croaking away he stretched out his hands and helped himself to two of the coveted eggs. These he placed in his cap which he held tightly between his teeth.
He then gave the signal to hoist away, and slowly began the upward climb.
But suddenly the upward pull stopped.
Gazing up the fifty feet of bare rock above, to his horror Tom saw that the rope had caught halfway in a forked piece of rock that jutted from the face of the cliff.
There he hung, perfectly helpless. Below, the great depth of several hundred feet; above, the precipice; around him the dreadful stillness of that absolutely solitary place. His companions were lost to sight and sound far back on the level ground above.
His life, humanly speaking, depended on Robert. His only connection with him was the single rope.
If anyone would learn the meaning of that word, “Trust” he should be in what was then Tom’s position. He could not see Robert; but he could see his danger. Would the sharp edges of the rock cut his lifeline?
By this time Robert knew that something was wrong, and guessing that the rope had been caught, began carefully working it free; while Tom looked anxiously for any sign of it beginning to cut or fray.
But Robert knew what he was about, and with much skill and patience was at last able to free the rope.
The breathless moments of suspense were over, and thanks to Robert, in a few more minutes Tom was scrambling over the edge of the cliff above, glad to find his feet once more on solid ground.
Are you trusting the One who can never fail you? The Apostle Paul could say, “I know whom I have believed.” (1 Tim. 1:1212And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; (1 Timothy 1:12)) Can you say that? You cannot see the Lord Jesus, any more than Tom could see Robert as he hung over the cliff, but you may safely trust the One of whom the Bible says: “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.” Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25).
ML-12/29/1974