One beautiful summer day I went out for a walk on Port Williams Beach. It is a long, narrow strip of sand between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and a nearly vertical wall of compressed sand, clay and pebbles that the local people refer to as “high bank.” The high bank is somewhere around 80 feet high. It was cut out of the earth thousands of years ago by glaciers. At the top of the high bank is a band of evergreen trees. Sometimes eagles roost in the branches of these trees.
While I was walking along the beach, I happened to spot a small gray squirrel. I don’t know how he had first gotten down to the beach, but he was definitely out of his element. He was running ten paces one way, and then he would turn around sharply and run back to where he started from. I felt sorry for the furry little creature because the beach with waves pounding the shore is an extremely inhospitable environment for most animals. It had no source of fresh water for the squirrel to drink, or trees with seeds or nuts for him to eat, and precious few places for the squirrel to hide from predators such as eagles. Trapped on the barren landscape of the beach, I didn’t think the squirrel could survive for long.
Suddenly the squirrel did a curious thing. He abruptly stopped his running and jumped onto the wall of the high bank. I saw at once he intended to climb the wall as if it were a giant tree. He seemed to go straight up the wall almost at a run. He was a nimble and agile climber, but no matter how magnificent a climber the little animal was, I could see that there was trouble ahead for him. As I scanned the path the squirrel would have to take to reach the top, I saw that the last fifteen or twenty feet of the high bank formed a flat plane that actually angled back over the beach.
When the squirrel arrived at this section of the wall, he saw it too. He paused for just a moment to consider his path, and then he pressed on. He didn’t get too far before his claws lost what little hold they had on the wall, and he fell backwards, hurtling through the air. His body was so light that I barely heard a little tap when it hit the beach. I didn’t see any way I could help the poor fellow. Hopefully, he wasn’t badly injured and would soon figure out some other way to get back to the woodlands where he belonged.
Squirrels were not meant to live on the barren landscape of a beach, just as men were not meant to live apart from God. But sin has surely separated them from God! As the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 59 of his book, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you.” Instead of living in the barren land of sin and shame, God wants all people to return to Him. “The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)).
So that sinners might have a way of escaping the penalty their sins deserve, the Son of God gave His life at Calvary. The blood the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross is the power to wash the vilest sinner clean. “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] 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)).
The squirrel trapped on the beach by the high bank knew he had to get back to the forest, and he set off to make an almost impossible climb. Often when men realize that their righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags, they set out to do the impossible too. They try to make themselves righteous by doing good works. But what they are doing is setting themselves up for a great fall, because “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:2020Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)).
Won’t you leave the barrenness of sin behind you forever and place your faith in the One who justifies the ungodly? God loves you and will surely count you righteous the moment you believe on His Son. Once you receive His Son, he will never leave you nor forsake you forever. God in His love has done it all for you by giving His Son. Won’t you believe Him and receive the salvation He freely offers?