Jimmy was a typical young teenager who loved to have fun, and sometimes his fun included tricks he played on friends. Usually his tricks didn’t harm anybody or anything, but one time the trick could have had serious results.
Late one evening Jimmy and his friend Al were walking home along a dark village street near his home. As they passed a house that was in the process of being built, the boys came up with an idea. The neighbors who were having the house built were letting their family of boys sleep in the attic of the new house. Because the inside wasn’t finished, the only way to get into the attic was from the outside by a ladder. Jimmy and Al knew this and also knew that the boys had planned to sleep in the attic that night.
The two friends decided to sneak quietly to the side of the house, remove the ladder and hide it in the ditch. Once they completed their secret plan, each boy headed to his own home and hurried off to bed.
But Jimmy had difficulty falling asleep. He tossed and turned. Every time he closed his eyes, he imagined the broken, lifeless bodies of young boys lying on the ground of the unfinished house. He tried to erase the thought that the boys might fall from the attic to the ground, but still he couldn’t sleep.
After some struggling with himself, Jimmy crept out of bed, slid into his jeans and quietly left his home and hurried down the street in the darkness. He found the ladder hidden in the ditch and quickly carried it to the house where the boys were sleeping in the attic. He carefully placed it back against the house where he and Al had found it. Then he hurried down the street back to his home and into bed.
Jimmy knew what he did was wrong and that the Lord had been speaking to him. He whispered a prayer, telling the Lord Jesus that he was sorry for the trick he had played and thanked Him for helping him to make it right. Jimmy’s mind was at rest, and he immediately fell asleep.
Jimmy belonged to the Lord Jesus, and he knew that God didn’t want him to remove that ladder. In the eyes of God, sin is disobeying what we know is right. He realized that what he had done in fun could have caused a tragedy. He knew he needed to confess his sin and correct the deed, and then he could thank the Lord for His forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)).
ML-03/18/2012