A young Christian man, known to some of us, was put into a prison camp during the war just closed. The following incident happened while he was in this place. We shall tell it in his own words.
“The other day, while we were eating dinner, we saw that a little sparrow had gotten itself hung up by a yard or so of fine twine and there dangled in mid-air from the eave trough. It made frantic attempts to obtain its freedom, but without success only becoming more and more tired out with its efforts. Time after time it tried to fly away, each time managing to go only the length of the twine and then dropping back on to the slate roofing, down which it slowly slid and eventually ended up dangling from the cord. For about an hour this went on, a crowd of prisoners sorrowfully watching, unable to help as they were then under guard. Later, when they were out for exercise, one boy, with the eager help of many, climbed up the piping at the side of the wall to free the poor frightened bird. Carefully and tenderly the cord was cut and the little prisoner allowed to fly away.”
What a glorious feeling of liberty that escaped bird must have had! As it soared away into the heavens, we can well imagine it singing,
“O, how thankful I am to that one who set me free from that cruel cord That would sooner or later have been the death of me!”
And as the sparrow is the most common and worthless of birds, it might also have thought,
“Why should all this have been done, for ME?”
Boys and girls, we are just like that bird. Satan has bound us by the cruel, cruel chain of sin, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot escape from his hand. BUT JESUS saw us thus in Satan’s power, and at the cost of His life, He came and delivered us and set us free forever from our pitiless master.
Do you believe this about yourself and the Lord Jesus? Can you say, like one of old.
ML 06/23/1946