“Aren’t the birdies pretty, Mommy?” said three-year-old Margaret to her mother one sunny day as they sat together in the yard. “See, there’s some in the grass ... and see that pretty blue one over there in the tree? I wish I could catch a bird. Will you help me catch one, Mommy?”
“Do you know what my daddy always used to say, Margaret? If you could put salt on a bird’s tail, you could catch it.”
“Did you ever catch one?” asked Margaret.
“No, I never tried,” said her mother.
“Didn’t you even try?” said little Margaret surprised. “If I could catch a bird, I’d try!” And with that she ran into the house to get the saltshaker off the kitchen table.
For a long time Margaret chased the birds, trying to put salt on their tails. Finally she got discouraged and ran over to her mother in tears. “They won’t stay still long enough for me to put salt on their tails,” she sobbed.
Mother scooped Margaret up into her arms and said, “No, that way won’t work. That’s just like trying to get to heaven by doing good works, isn’t it? We just aren’t able to do good because we are sinners, so we can’t get to heaven that way. It won’t work. We have to trust the Lord Jesus. He said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me’ (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). He died for us to wash away all the naughty things that we’ve done so we can go to heaven and live with Him there forever. Wasn’t that very, very kind of Him?”
Have you admitted to the Lord Jesus that you are a sinner, and have you let Him wash your sins away? Have you ever thanked Him for dying for you? “Not by works of righteousness [good deeds] which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)).
ML-04/15/2012