Ned and David were taking a short cut home from school. It was not much shorter perhaps, but it included a little footbridge over Fletcher’s Creek, which was much more interesting than the streets of town. Besides, the creek was flooding at this time, and the water was running ten inches deep over the bridge. Didn’t that add to the fun?
No sensible man who wanted to get home would have taken that way, but Ned was only eight and David was seven. They laughed at the thought of danger and stepped out on the flooded bridge, just as many a sinner steps out into the paths of sin.
David reached the other side in safety and glanced back just in time to see Ned’s head go under the water. There were overhanging twigs and roots to grasp, but David knew he needed someone who was able to save his drowning companion. He knew he could not do it himself. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him for a quarter of a mile to his home, where the milkman was at that moment talking to his mother. The three then sped back to the creek, with fear and love and hope all the way.
Poor Ned was struggling in the water like a sinner who realizes he is sinking in sin. He grasped at a twig here and there which snapped off under his weight. His coat was becoming soaked through, and was cold and heavy as lead. Just as his limbs became numb with cold and everything grew black before his eyes, the milkman dived in, and pushed him over within reach of David’s mother’s eager hands. They helped him up the steep bank, and brought him to David’s home, where he was tenderly cared for until his parents came to claim him.
What did Ned and his father say to the brave milkman? Had they acted like many a sinner whom Jesus came to save, they would have said nothing. But Ned’s father was not so ungrateful. He said: “Now I know that the gratitude of a father toward another man who risks his life in saving his son, is something that can’t truly be put into words.”
I wonder if Ned and his father poured out their hearts in gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ who came to seek and to save that which was lost. I woer if you have, too. The Lord Jesus did not merely risk His life to save us He gave His life. He died in our guilty place that we might live. Has He saved you? Have you ever acknowledged that you are lost and in far greater danger than Ned was? If you die in your sins you will sink down into eternal hell. The Lord Jesus holds out His hands of love to you today? Will you accept Him and thank Him? Eternity will not be long enough to thank Him for His finished work on Calvary!
“THOU WAST SLAIN, AND HAST REDEEMED US TO GOD BY THY BLOOD OUT OF EVERY KINDRED, AND TONGUE, AND PEOPLE, AND NATION.” Rev. 5:99And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9).
ML 12/02/1956