“But, Mom, everyone else is going—and I mean everyone! Why do I always have to be different from the rest of the boys?”
“No, Ted. Please don’t ask again. Your father and I feel that that park is not anyplace where the Lord would want us to go. There are things there that we feel are not pleasing to Him, and we are trying to please Him. If you were a Christian and loved the Lord you would understand.”
“Well, I don’t think I ever want to be a Christian if I can’t do what everyone else is doing,” Ted replied angrily. He let the screen door bang behind him as he clumped outdoors.
When Ted found out later that he also could not go to the Boy Scout summer camp with his friends, he grumbled again. Some of the Sunday school children were going to spend a week at a lake where they would have Bible studies in the morning and outdoor activities in the afternoon. Ted’s answer to this idea was, “I don’t want to go! There are only a couple kids I know who are going there.”
Ted did not realize it, but the only things he ever wanted to do were the things everyone else was doing. He talked and acted like everyone else. Even when he knew that what the rest of his friends wanted to do was wrong, he did not speak up for what he knew was right. If “everyone else” was doing it, he wanted to do it too!
When Ted arrived at the lake with the other Sunday school children, everything seemed strange to him. At first he was not very happy, but soon the activities at the beach and lake and the games made him happy. Before he knew it he had made some new friends and was glad he had come. To his surprise even the Bible lessons were interesting!
His teacher for the Bible lesson in the morning had a big chart on the wall that said, “Two Roads and Two Destinies.” It was covered with diagrams and pictures which Ted found helped him to understand the Bible stories better.
A drawing in the center of the chart showed a wide road with many people walking on it. This road went downward until it ended in a place called “the lake of fire.” Near the center of the drawing was a small road turning off the wide road. This road could only be entered through a gate which was shaped like a cross. This narrow road led upward to heaven. Ted noticed that there were only a few people walking on this road compared to the number that were on the wide road.
Their teacher explained that the wide road was the easy one, because it is the road “everyone else” is taking. They see it as an “exciting” road, because it is pleasing to their sinful hearts. Only a few people see that this road is dangerous. The others don’t see the danger because their eyes have been blinded by Satan. They think that since “everyone else” is on this road it must be all right.
Suddenly Ted could see that he was one of those people going down that wide road that ended in everlasting punishment! He knew he had always wanted to do what his friends were doing. Now for the first time he could see the great danger in doing that. As he studied the chart his eyes followed the “broad way” back to where the narrow road turned off. Right away he saw that to start on that narrow road he had to go through the “cross gate.” He knew from what his parents had taught him and what he had learned in Sunday school that he needed to be saved. He had to come to the One who had died on that cross, and accept Him as his Saviour. He knew his sins had to be washed away.
At the end of the lesson Ted felt nervous about going up to talk to the teacher, but he knew he had better do it.
The two of them went for a walk along one of the trails while the teacher explained what it all meant. They were sitting on a mossy log with a red squirrel scolding from a branch overhead when Ted accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
Ted had walked down that wide road for several years before he really understood that he was on his way to a lost eternity. The love of God rescued him from that road, and now he is walking on the narrow road that leads to heaven.
God loves you, too, and He wants to rescue you from that dangerous wide road. Won’t you accept Him as your Saviour right now?
ML-07/18/1982