Julie felt like singing as she mowed the lawn one day last spring. The sun was finally shining, and it felt so good to work outside and to cut that long grass at last. Pepper, the dog, followed after the lawn mower, eager to explore whatever the mower turned up.
Suddenly, ahead of the mower blades, Julie noticed a robin’s nest in the grass. She quickly got off the mower and went to rescue the nest. But Pepper was also interested in that nest! He started yapping at Julie, trying to jump up and get the baby bird in the nest that Julie was now holding over her head. To make matters worse, the parent birds completely misunderstood Julie’s kindness and started diving at her from overhead. They wanted her to leave their baby alone. This wasn’t turning out well at all!
Through all the commotion, Julie became aware of another strange noise from somewhere behind her. She turned around in time to see the riding lawn mower chewing steadily through a young apple tree. She had forgotten to stop the motor and it had continued right on its way until it met something that stopped it!
What would you have done if you were Julie? She did the only thing there was to do - she started yelling for help!
“Kurt! Kurt! Come and get this dog!” Kurt came running and hauled Pepper away. Julie put the baby bird down where it would be safe, then ran to stop the lawn mower.
Have you ever found yourself in a mess like that when you were trying to help someone? Julie was trying to be a savior for that little bird because she felt sorry for it. But she got muddy footprints on her clothes from her dog, attacks from the parent birds, and lost an apple tree, all in saving the baby bird. This makes me think of the Lord Jesus who went through far more than all that so He could be our Saviour. He was cruelly betrayed by a friend, nailed by His hands and feet to a rough cross, and then took the awful punishment we deserved from God to pay for our sins. Wasn’t that a wonderfully kind thing to do? It says in Luke 6:3535But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. (Luke 6:35), “He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” That’s you and me.
It’s hard to understand why the Lord Jesus went through all that for sinners. He explains why in another Bible verse: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:33The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jeremiah 31:3)).
You and I are just like that helpless baby bird in the grass. It had a lawn mower about to run over it and a dog that would have killed it if the mower didn’t. You and I are trapped in our sins with the sentence of death in the lake of fire threatening us.
Julie knew that baby bird on the ground could not save itself. She was the only one who could save it, and she did. The Lord Jesus saw us in our sins and knew we could not save ourselves from that sentence of death. He was the only one who could, and He went to the cross for that very purpose.
Will you let Him forgive your sins and reserve a place in heaven for you?
ML-06/23/1996