Have you ever had one of those days after school was out for the summer when you got kind of bored? I was about ten years old at the time of this story I’m going to tell you. It was a hot day, and it was late afternoon. I had already ridden my bike all around our neighborhood and was looking for something else to do.
Our street had a dead end, and just beyond the dead end was a steep bank where, a few weeks earlier, many loads of dirt had been unloaded by big dump trucks. It had been fun watching those big trucks dump their loads of dirt. Then a new guardrail had been installed at the dead end to keep cars from rolling down the steep bank and into the ravine below. However, there were a couple of paths around the guardrail, and I followed one of them on my bike.
As I was sitting on the edge of that bank on my bike, the dirt felt cool on my bare feet. I could see the steep twenty-five-foot drop down to the bottom of the ravine. About halfway down, wild blackberry vines were growing thick. I sat there wondering if the berries were ripe yet and then got to thinking that maybe there were ducks down on the swamp and maybe there was even a wild animal slinking around down there at the bottom. I was so lost in my daydreams that I forgot where I was . . . until my bike started to roll over the edge of the bank and I couldn’t stop it!
I was in big trouble now, as I hung on to my bike for dear life as it rolled down that steep bank. I couldn’t stop it and I couldn’t get off! What can I do? Will I die? my mind screamed! I cried out, “HELP ME, LORD!”
I must have blacked out because I didn’t remember anything else until I woke up all tangled up in my bike. The blackberry vines had cushioned my fall and prevented me from going farther down the bank, possibly to the bottom, to what would have been a much worse landing.
I hurt all over, and it was hard to get untangled from the bike in the middle of those thorny blackberry vines that were scratching me all over. It was all I could do to push the bike back up the hill. But at the same time, I knew that the Lord Jesus had answered my frantic, three-word prayer, and I was so thankful!
I attended Sunday school regularly and had learned that Jesus loved me and had died for me. I also knew that I was a sinner and that Jesus wanted to wash away my sins. One day when I was younger, I told the Lord Jesus that I was a sinner and wanted Him to wash away my sins. Now I belonged to His family!
In Sunday school I also learned Bible verses. One of them that must have come back to me as I went over the bank was, “Call upon Me [the Lord Jesus] in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15)). And that’s exactly what I did: I called . . . He delivered . . . and I’m still thanking and praising Him for helping me that day.
Have you come to Jesus to have Him wash your sins away? If so, then you can call on Him for help whenever you are in any trouble. It doesn’t have to be only big troubles, like mine was. You can call on Him for help with little troubles too.