Joe and his father and mother were on vacation and had taken a cabin on the shore of a beautiful lake. Joe liked to fish, though he had only a line and a hook on the end of a pole.
One night he woke up at the sound of something crying. He slipped out of bed, got his flashlight, and peeked outside the door. What a strange sight he saw! His pole was leaning against the side of the cabin and there was his little kitten, caught by the hook at the end of the line. She was pawing at her mouth as she tried to pull away from the hook.
Kneeling beside her, Joe carefully removed the hook from her mouth. Then Kitty crept away and curled up into a little ball in the corner of the room to nurse her sore mouth. Why should that nice-smelling fish at the end of the line have hurt her mouth so? Puss had not seen the hook hidden in the bait.
Do you know, dear reader, that Satan too has baits which he uses to catch boys and girls? Some of his baits are “Don’t be in a hurry to get saved. Have some fun first...It’s only a little sin, and you won’t do it again... Everybody does it. All can’t be wrong... There’s no harm in it;” and so on.
These and many other things Satan whispers into the ears of young folks and older ones too, but they are his baits to catch and trap people. And just as the little kitten could not free herself from the dread hook, neither can we free ourselves from Satan’s snares when once caught. Only the Lord Jesus, the true Saviour of sinners, can set us free from sin and Satan’s power.
Little Puss was set entirely free from the dread hook, but the “hurt” remained for a long time. And so it is when we fall into sin. The Lord Jesus can and will deliver from sin and Satan’s power, but the “hurt” remains for a long time after, sometimes for the rest of our lives, though the Lord Jesus can comfort and keep us happy in spite of past failure.
However, when the Lord Jesus comes to take all His own home to heaven, the “hurt”—the sorrows and the pain of this life-will be left behind forever, and it will be all cloudless joy and peace in His presence.
All taint of sin shall be removed
All evil done away;
And we shall dwell with God’s Beloved
Through God’s eternal day.
ML-11/06/1977