The Chicago commuter train Number 720 had a yellow light. Yellow means, “Proceed carefully at a maximum of 30 mph.”
Suddenly the engineer jumped through the door into the passenger compartment.
“We’re going to crash!” he yelled as he ran for his life.
Behind him the front end of the car collapsed forward with a fearful crash. Screeching brakes and metal mingled with the screams of the passengers. People were thrown in all directions.
It was a terrible tragedy. Forty-five died in the wreck on that October morning in 1972. One moment the passengers were riding along to work oblivious to danger, the next they were twisted and mangled.
How this reminds us of the uncertainty of life! We know not how close we may be to danger and death. This reminds us too of the great tragedy that beset the whole human race in the beginning when sin came in. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.... For the wages of sin is death.” Rom. 5:12; 6:2312Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12)
23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
Lisa and Pat were both high school seniors. They were riding along to their part-time jobs that fateful October morning. They were chatting together, when suddenly, without warning, their train car was crushed. As they were thrown against the walls, they both went unconscious.
Slowly, sometime later, they both came back to consciousness in a strange unreal world. Above them the twisted train car tilted at a 45 degree angle. Only their heads stuck out from under the wreckage. Neither could move an inch.
“Are you okay?” asked Pat weekly. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Lisa moaned. “Do you think we’re alive?”
Lisa pushed against the wreckage but it was like trying to shove aside a mountain. The girls became panicky. They began to cry and scream for help. Trapped beneath hundreds of tons of steel there was nothing they could do to free themselves. They might ask, Do you think we’re alive; but the real question was, Would they get out of that trap alive?
Pat and Lisa make us think of so many people who are hopelessly entrapped by sin. They travel along the way of life without a thought of danger. Then suddenly they come face to face with the reality of death and eternity. They try to free themselves from their weight of sin, but they find that their sins are like a mountain they cannot move. There is no one on earth who can take that load of sin away. The only One who can is the Son of God, the Saviour in heaven, who bore sin’s heavy load upon the cross of Calvary. “Who His own Self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead... should live.” 1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24).
Dear reader, if such is your case, then follow Pat and Lisa’s example and cry for help, for God says: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.” Psa. 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15). “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Rom. 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13).
While Pat and Lisa were calling for help, Captain John Windle of the Chicago fire department rescue squad was searching the wreckage for injured passengers. He heard the girls’ cries, and soon he and his crew were hard at work trying to save them alive. It took six hours with the help of a gigantic railroad crane to raise the huge train car and free the girls. A waiting helicopter quickly whisked them away to a nearby hospital. Doctors and nurses hovered over them, and in the Lord’s mercies Pat and Lisa were spared and soon on their way to recovery.
Captain John Windle, hearing and answering the girls’ cries, reminds us of that wonderful scripture, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10).
ML-06/03/1979