Almost every week or so, the Chicago area expressways are littered with unusual things that have fallen out of trucks. Frozen green beans, shampoo, orange juice, hamburger, even crates of live chickens have been some of the things accidently dumped on the roadways by trailer trucks involved in accidents. One time a load of cattle somehow got loose and roamed over the expressway, stopping traffic until the police got them rounded up and back in the trailer. But nothing caused as much excitement as when two bags of money spilled out onto the Stevenson Expressway. The two bags rolled out of an armored truck, split open and sent $167,000 blowing loose on the pavement!
Cars began slamming on their brakes in the middle of the expressway, and 50 or 60 motorists jumped out of their cars and began grabbing up the money. Some of them even got into fights over the money. Drivers were seen getting back into their cars and trucks with their arms filled with bundles of money. Others scrambled on their hands and knees, gathering up loose bills. Within minutes, the expressway was completely blocked in both directions. Police reported that it took half an hour to get the traffic moving again. One police officer said, “It’s too bad someone didn’t have a movie camera out there. You could have seen human nature at its worst!”
In Proverbs 15:33The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (Proverbs 15:3) we are told, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Most of the people were able to get away with the money they had gathered up (stolen) without being identified by the police. BUT ... God was watching! Another verse in Genesis 16:1313And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? (Genesis 16:13) tells us, “Thou God seest me.” Even if the police are never able to find the drivers who picked up the money and kept it, God knows right where they are, even now, and exactly how much money they stole.
Not many of us will ever be faced with the temptation of gathering up money from a roadway. But are we able to pass the “little” temptations, like a cookie or a piece of candy that is not ours? In God’s eyes, whether it’s 100 dollars that is taken or just one small piece of candy, it is still SIN! First Timothy 6:11 warns us to “flee [or, run away from] these things.” How good to know, if we have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, that He will help us to “flee” sin. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)).
Messages of God’s Love 5/31/2020