Ed and Jan were a happy Christian couple. They each had accepted the Lord Jesus as Saviour and loved to tell others about Him, so they kept a box of gospel tracts beside the front door. As they went out they would pick up a few to take along with them.
One day as they were buckling their seat belts before driving to Pembroke, Ontario, Ed said, “You know, Dear, I think the Lord would like us to take a lot of these tracts with us today.” So he went back into the house and picked up a big stack of gospel tracts. Each one had a picture of a train with a vistadome (a dome with large windows for sightseeing) on top.
As they drove along, talking about the stack of tracts, Ed remarked while looking at the picture, “Don’t you think it would be fun to go across the country on that? You could see for miles around, looking through that glass dome top.” Jan agreed, and added that the Canadian Pacific vistadome train would probably be traveling at that very moment on the track that soon would be running alongside the highway on which they were driving. But they decided that since it was such a fast train, it was unlikely they would see it.
It wasn’t too many miles farther, as they came over a crest of a hill, that Jan said, “Look, Ed! What’s that?”
“It looks like the vistadome train lying on its side on the track!” As they drove closer they saw it was just that. “Do you think anyone is alive?” they wondered as they stopped their car and started toward the overturned engine.
“Wow! I almost fell! Be careful. This stuff is slippery!” said Ed, looking down to see his feet in a pond of asphalt that covered the track and all the ground around it for quite a distance. Just then they saw a strange-looking man come from behind the train. He looked strange because he was black with asphalt almost from head to toe and had streaks of blood running down his face and chest and arms.
That blood running down that man’s chest and arms didn’t wash off a speck of that black, sticky asphalt. But the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, can wash away every trace of sin that has ever blackened your heart. “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).
“What happened to you?” Ed asked the man covered with asphalt and blood.
“I was driving my tractor trailer truck full of asphalt down that hill, and the sun was glaring in my eyes so that I couldn’t see the train coming. When I did see it, it was too late to back off the track, so I gunned it to try to get across before the train got here. I made it over in the tractor, but the engine hit my trailer and spilled my load of asphalt all over the ground.”
By that time another truck had stopped and took the injured truck driver to a house at the top of the hill to get cleaned up and bandaged.
Ed and Jan made their way through the gooey asphalt with their first-aid kit and the stack of tracts, still wondering what they would find in the train.
If you were to come so close to death, would you be wondering where you would spend eternity, or would you know for sure that you would be with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven? You can know for sure. John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24) says, “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
Soon they saw the conductor climbing up out of the overturned train. “Are you hurt?” asked Ed and Jan together.
“Not badly,” replied the conductor. “This morning I prayed for the Lord’s safe keeping, as I always do before I go out on a run. The Lord has graciously kept me in safety, and I think all the passengers as well.”
Soon the passengers began to climb out of the train too. Ed and Jan gave each one a gospel tract. Because the tracts had a picture of a train on them, the people thought the railroad company had sent them, so everyone took one. The Lord Jesus had kept them safe during that frightening time and the gospel tracts told them how He would keep them safe for all eternity. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Hebrews 9:2828So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28). And if we listen to His Word and believe in Him we will have everlasting life and never come into judgment.
Among the last of the passengers to come out of the train were several tearful young boys.
“Our mother is waiting for us at the next station,” they told Ed and Jan, “and we’ll never get there. What shall we do?”
Ed and Jan assured them that God had already proved His care over them by not letting them get hurt in the train, and He would continue to look after them. The railroad company was planning to send limousines to take the passengers to their destinations. “But best of all,” they told the boys, “God will take care of us for all eternity. Tor God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’" John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
The boys said, “We don’t usually think about God, but we’re sure going to say our prayers tonight and thank Him for all He’s done for us.”
That was a good idea, wasn’t it? Revelation 7:11And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. (Revelation 7:1)2 Says, “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen.”
ML-11/27/1988