In the night, Officer Marsha Melbourne drove her car through the slums of Johannesburg and up to a dilapidated house. A concerned person in the neighborhood had called the police to report what sounded like screams coming from the house. The place looked deserted. The windows were broken, and the front door was partially off its hinges. Shining her flashlight through the open door, she saw rats scurry across a floor littered with garbage. Pushing the door open, she entered with her partner. They searched the place with their flashlights. They didn’t find any sign of foul play, and they were about to leave when they heard a faint sound which seemed to come from the direction of a dirty bucket. She went over to the bucket, pointed the beam of her flashlight into it, and what she saw made her wince with pain. In the bucket she found a newborn baby, probably a couple of hours old, which had apparently been abandoned and left to die.
Officer Melbourne spoke into her shoulder-mounted radio and requested the aid of paramedics. Then she picked up the tiny infant and held it in her arms close to her body to keep it warm. When she picked up the baby, something stirred in the depths of her heart, and she knew she would have to try to make this baby, which had been thrown away and left to die, part of her own family.
Paramedics rushed the baby to the hospital in an ambulance. Officer Melbourne followed close behind in the squad car. Doctors checked out the vital signs of the baby, and nurses washed it clean. Then the policewoman pulled a hospital gown over her uniform and sat in a rocking chair holding the infant the rest of the night. She would go on to spend a lot of her spare time in the weeks to come in the hospital caring for the baby. She also took all the legal steps for adoption. Today, the child which was thrown away and left to die is part of a healthy, loving family and is very much loved and wanted.
Do you know that God’s heart goes out to you — lost and lonely and sin-stained — and He wants you to become part of His family and belong to Him forever? There isn’t a soul living in this whole wide world whom God doesn’t love and long to see come to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Men in weakness, ignorance, malice and selfish wickedness are capable of committing every kind of sin, even abandoning a tiny baby to die. God is not like sinful man. God didn’t make the souls of men in order to abandon them. In Him there is an absence of all malice or ill will towards others. He is perfect love. “God is love” (1 John 4:88(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) (John 4:8)).
In order to save sinners, the Son of God came from heaven to earth to become a man. He was born in a stable, but His birth was announced by angels. “There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:814).The coming of Christ shows, as nothing else ever could, the good will of God towards men.
At the age of thirty Jesus began His public ministry. As He walked about the country of Israel, He did countless miracles, healing the sick and lame, giving sight to the blind, and even raising the dead back to life. At the end of three and a half years, He was taken by men who hated Him, given a false trial and condemned to death by crucifixion. He was nailed to a cross, where He hung for six hours before He died. The crucifixion of Christ was the darkest deed ever committed by mankind.
His body was taken down off the cross, wrapped in a linen cloth, and laid in a tomb cut out of a rock. A large stone was rolled over the mouth of the tomb. His body lay in the grave during the last part of Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.
On the third day, early in the morning, He arose from the grave. A few of His followers came to the grave to mourn and found the stone rolled away. “They found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:2727And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)).
What is the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to you?
It means souls that deserve death, darkness and eternal punishment for their sins might instead find pardon, forgiveness, healing and eternal life. “Jesus . . . who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:2425). He can justify sinners because He died in their place.
It means God was not willing to abandon souls even when they were far from Him in the enmity of their hearts. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
The policewoman searched the dilapidated house, found the abandoned baby, and adopted her into her own family. The Lord Jesus is looking for you. He wants to find you and shine the beam of his light into your heart so that you know His great love and the wonderful things He has done for you. He wants you to bow your heart before Him, confess that you are lost, and place your faith in Him so that you might be His child forever.
You can die and go to a lost eternity, but you can never die unloved. God offers you the gift of eternal life, and it will be yours if you accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour, but if you reject Him, you will throwing your own soul away for all eternity. You will be the one responsible for this. Don’t go on another moment without Him who alone can save your soul. He is the Saviour this world so desperately needs.