Dear Aunt Ruth enjoyed telling us many stories about her childhood. One morning, we all sat wide-eyed around the breakfast table as she told us the following story. Although it happened over forty years ago, she remembered as clearly as if it had been last week.
“Well, you know what a stubborn little girl I could be sometimes. But this time I was sure that I was right. Holding our mother’s umbrella, my brother Richard and I looked down from the second-story window of our home to the garden below.
" ‘Come on, Richard,’ I coaxed, ‘It’s easy. Just close your eyes and jump. The umbrella will make you go down nice and slow.’ But Richard did not agree. He said he didn’t think it would work, and the ground was such a long ways down!
“Then my brother watched as I opened the umbrella and pushed up the window. He warned me that I’d get hurt, and that I wasn’t very smart to think that an old umbrella was going to act like a parachute. But I was stubborn and said I’d show him how gently I’d sail down.
“Well, both my legs were now dangling over the windowsill. The breeze felt just right, so I asked Richard to give me a little shove. He refused, so I pushed off myself, holding the opened umbrella over my head.
“Oh! the pain! I landed so suddenly that it seemed like the fall was only a few inches. My feet were crossed, and I could feel my ankles swelling.
“I looked up at Richard and cried, ‘I broke my legs! I broke my legs! Get Mother!’
“Well, it was a wonder that I only had one sprained ankle. But I surely learned a lesson I’ll never forget!”
The Bible tells us, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12). There are people today who believe that they can get to heaven by their own plans. They try to live a good life. They attend Sunday school regularly. They give money to the poor. But these people who stubbornly go on without the Lord Jesus are not safe. Unless they trust Him as their Saviour, they will get a rude awakening!
The only way we can enter heaven and be safe from the punishment that is coming at the end of this world, is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the door: by Me if any man (boy or girl) enter in, he shall be saved.” John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9).
Are you safe? Have you believed in your heart that the Lord Jesus died to take away your sins? Then you can be sure that “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:2727The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. (Deuteronomy 33:27).
ML-10/17/1982