The airplane dropped down through the hot Mexican sky and lined up with the sleepy village. The loud buzzing noise startled nine-year-old Panchito and he ran outside to see the first airplane he had ever seen. Suddenly a white cloud burst from the plane. Was it smoke? The white cloud quickly broke up, fragmented into a thousand pieces as the wind scattered the little papers. On flew the little plane, apparently just fine. Others also noticed the little papers fluttering downward over the avocado plantations on the outskirts of town. Panchito shrugged his fear aside and joined the other children as they squealed and laughed, running through the fields to pick up as many of the little papers as possible.
“The picture on the front is very interesting,” he thought. “I wonder what the words say?” His parents had died and, since he had never been to school, he knew who must help him. He ran to her house.
Grandmother sat down beside him and read the touching story of God’s love for sinners, of how the Lord Jesus died on the cross, and about heaven and hell. This was a new message and it was a great contrast to the mixture of superstition and witchcraft that Panchito experienced in his town. One man was very upset when he read the papers. He scowled and spoke angrily to the people: “Bring me all of these papers. Come, and we’ll burn these lies in the town square!” The adults fearfully and quietly handed their papers over and carefully collected them from the children.
But Panchito was intrigued by the stories and Bible verses in the papers and determined to save them to be read another day. He tucked his papers inside his shirt, took the shortest way home and quickly slipped his treasure under his straw sleeping mat. Then he joined the other children in the town square where they watched the papers flame up. The smoke and ashes rose into the blue sky as some men cursed the people who had dropped the messages from the plane. The inquisitive Panchito often brought out his hidden papers and secretly had somebody read to him. What could be wrong with these words, he wondered? The paper explained how that God’s word, the Bible, teaches that God loved the world so much that He gave His beloved Son to die for our sin. Was there something wrong with such words? Were they not true? The paper talked about sins. He cringed as he thought about some of the bad words he had used that week. He had been told that stealing was sin. So were bad thoughts, and disobedience. This seemed to be the bad news that the paper talked about. But, apparently, the Bible said that God had done something about sin. The verse from the Bible was beautiful! “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)).
Many years had passed, but he had never forgotten those penetrating words. The papers had long ago become dirty and frayed and he had finally lost them as he moved about the country. One day as he walked across the main plaza in town, a stranger handed him a gospel tract. At home his daughter read it for him. He was surprised. “This is like the message that came from the sky at my village more than three hundred miles from here, fifty years ago.” The next day he went back to the plaza. The same man was there, and he was speaking about God. Panchito had never heard anybody read from the Bible before, but he recognized the message. The preacher asked, “Do you know that the Bible tells us that we have all sinned?” Panchito nodded his head. He knew this. This was in his paper from the sky. Mr. Alves continued and read from 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): “He that [hears] My word and [believes] on Him that sent Me [has] everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life.” Panchito could hardly sit still. SO, it was true! It was in the Bible!
Panchito went to the preacher. “This is the same message I heard in a paper when I was a child.” He thought for a moment. “This message is true. I am a sinner and I know that God sent His beloved Son into the world so I can be saved and forgiven for all my sins. I believe and receive this message right now, and I must thank God for saving me.” Not only did he welcome the Lord Jesus into his life, but his wife and four of his children and some of his grandchildren also received the message of the Savior and were saved. In order to read more of the Bible on his own, Panchito learned how to read, even though he was not a young man.
Probably the message of the Bible has not come to you from an airplane. Perhaps you have the Bible in your hand or nearby. But the message is the same. We have sinned. God did send His Son into our world to pay for our sins. He was sinless, but He suffered as though He had committed my sin. God offers us the gift of eternal life and salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It’s a message from the sky, from heaven. It’s for the heart. Have you received it?