One of my favorite memories of my early childhood was a trip to a gin with my grandfather. Are you wondering what a gin is?
In West Texas where we grew up, cotton was the main crop grown on most of the farms. Cotton grows in boles with several sections in each bole, and each section has cotton fibers (called lint) clinging to a seed. A gin is a large building with machines that separate the cotton fiber from the seed. A very strong vacuum system lifts the picked cotton from the farmer’s wagon and moves it through the machinery to separate the fiber from the seed.
The cotton fiber is packed tightly into large bales, each weighing 500 pounds or more. It takes around a thousand pounds of picked cotton to make a bale of ginned cotton. The seed is stored in large bins surrounding the gin. The farmer could sell his cotton and seed separately, or together at the time of ginning, or he could pay the gin company to store each of them until a time when they might bring a better price. It was not uncommon for the farmer to save some of his seed for next year’s planting. He took this seed home with him and stored it in a seed bin on the farm.
As children we loved to play in the cotton seed. Since the seed was to be used for next year’s crop, our parents did not exactly smile on our pastime. However, it was not uncommon for the children of the cotton pickers to sleep in the seed bins. Cotton pickers were people who moved from farm to farm to help with the harvest.
Can you imagine my excitement when I was told I could go with Grandfather to the gin? We had to leave very early since it was several miles to Big Spring where the gin was located. Farmers’ wagons lined up to have their cotton ginned in the order they arrived on the “cotton yard.” You may have guessed by now that the wagons were drawn by horses or mules. Very few farmers had tractors and trucks like they use now to haul crops to market.
There is a wonderful event about to happen that you can look forward to with excitement, but only if you have received the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. It is the Lord Jesus coming again to take all who have believed on Him home to His Father’s house, the place called heaven that He has prepared for them. He said to His disciples before He died on the cross, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:2,3. For me to be able to go with Grandfather, I had to be ready to leave by the time he got the team of horses harnessed. To be ready to go with the Lord Jesus to that wonderful place He “has prepared for them that love Him,” each one of us must admit we are the sinner for whom the Lord Jesus died, and trust Him and His work on the cross to take away all our sins.
How I enjoyed sitting atop that wagon load of cotton with Grandfather all the way to the gin! And a wonderful thing about belonging to the Lord Jesus while we are waiting for Him to take us home to heaven is that we can enjoy His company now and all the way there. We had to wait quite a while for our turn to get our cotton “ginned,” but how I enjoyed Grandfather’s company and the stories he told me during the waiting time. And do you know what? After I grew up I learned that Grandfather also enjoyed my company on that trip. The Lord Jesus enjoys the company of those who open their hearts to let Him in and to have their sins washed away by His precious blood.
What if I had overslept or played around with my breakfast until it was past time for leaving? I would have missed all the joy and excitement of that wonderful day. The Bible warns of delaying to take advantage of God’s wonderful gift of free salvation. If you wait too long to accept it, or ignore it, you will miss heaven. The Bible asks, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Hebrews 2:3. What if Grandfather had been careless and had not gotten the wagon and horses ready for our trip? We would never have made it to the gin that day.
The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, has done everything that was necessary to make it possible for you and me to spend eternity with Him in the Father’s house in heaven. Will you receive the Lord Jesus today and make sure you are ready when He comes for His own?
My trip to the gin with Grandfather was over 60 years ago, and I have enjoyed the memory of it all those years. If you begin your journey to heaven now while you are young, you will enjoy the company of the Lord Jesus now, and you will have the promise of eternal joy when He comes again to “receive you” unto Himself.
What if He should come today? Better be ready!
ML-11/28/1993