Karen Edholm had been sleeping in her seat as the train carried her along on her monotonous journey. The 700 mile trip from Stockholm, Sweden, to Murjek in Lapland near the Artic Circle seemed to take forever. Outside it was 16 degrees below zero and the country was covered with ice and snow.
The train began to slow down and Karen sleepily opened her eyes. “We must be nearing home at last,” she thought. Then the train suddenly jolted to a stop. Karen sat up quickly.
“Is this Murjek?” she asked a fellow passenger.
He nodded as if to say “yes", so Karen grabbed her handbag and hastily opened the compartment door. Stepping out in the darkness she found herself falling. There was no platform and only the deep snow broke her fall. Getting to her feet she found herself in the middle of nowhere. There was no station and not a soul in sight.
Karen turned to climb back on the train, but it had already started to move on, leaving her behind. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” she screamed, but nobody answered and nothing happened. She had only summer clothes on, and there she stood shivering in the cold as she watched the lights of the train disappear in the distance.
Karen had been misdirected! Standing there helpless in the bitter cold, she was in danger of freezing to death.
How many poor souls there are like Karen!—going along on life’s journey asleep spiritually, hoping all will be well when they reach the end! And if awakened as they near the end with sober, serious thoughts of eternity, how often are they “misdirected” by those who ought to know better or who do not know the way themselves. The Lord Jesus is “the Way,” and all who trust Him as their Saviour will arrive safe Home in heaven at last.
When Karen stepped out into the night, instead of feeling a solid platform under her feet, she found herself falling. Those who have Christ are standing firm on “redemption ground.”
On Christ the solid Rock I stand—
All other ground is sinking sand.
Karen began to stumble along the tracks toward Murjek. It was bitterly cold. She jumped up and down, she flapped her arms and held her breath in an effort to beat the cold. Then she slipped and fell. “I’m going to freeze to death for sure,” she said in anguish.
Half an hour later she jumped for joy at the sound of another train. As the train approached she shouted and waved her arms. Alas! no one heard or saw her, and the train thundered past. Soon all was quiet.
“Does no one care?” she groaned.
But there is One that knows and cares, unsaved reader, you who are still out in the darkness of this cold world, still in your sins. Jesus cares about you, and “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13).
Karen dragged one foot after another along the barren tracks. An hour later she was almost unconscious on her feet, her clothes stiff with ice.
Then rescue came. A breakdown trolley came clattering down the tracks, and the men were amazed to find a half-frozen Karen on the railroad. Tenderly they wrapped her in their own coats and carried her to safety. The doctors stated that in 30 minutes more Karen would have frozen to death. She was saved just in time!
How many have come that close in their soul’s experience—saved just in time! But the Lord Jesus doesn’t want you to wait that long. Delay may be fatal. He wants to save you now! He wants to pick you up in those everlasting arms of love, wrap you in the robe of His own righteousness and carry you safe home to the love and light, to the warmth and glory of the Father’s house above, where you will be the object of His love and care forever.
ML-09/30/1979