The signs were plain enough: NO DIVING! But the sandy white beach shone in the sunlight, and the long pier stretched out temptingly over the blue water.
Past the signs the young men ran, laughing and shouting as they raced out onto the pier and into the water. Splashing—swimming—diving—and then one silent moment of panic and a frantic call of "Lifeguard! Lifeguard!"
Ah-h! There was a reason for the NO DIVING signs. Just under the water the cruel rocks waited, and one diver's head struck as he went down.
Precious minutes passed as they searched for him under the water—more time was lost in bringing him to shore—and by then it was too late. Once a faint flutter of a pulse gave hope, but cardiopulmonary resuscitation, oxygen, injections, even electrical shocks could not keep it going. An hour later the doctors at the hospital looked at each other and shook their heads wearily. He was dead—dead at nineteen—his life cut off almost before it began—because he would not be warned by the signs.
There had been many other signs in his life. We all meet them every day: NO PARKING—YIELD —SLOW—DANGEROUS CURVE, and probably he had ignored them often enough and "got by with it."
Don't we do the same? And we often "get by" too. No policeman stops us. No accident happens. We made it again! Silly old signs!
But sooner or later we speed past the SLOW sign—and the crash comes. Or we dive into the dangerous water, and strike sharp rocks.
God has posted His signs in our lives too. He has said that, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But we go on "getting by" with this and that, forgetting that He sees us; forgetting that "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11.
There are other warnings—other signposts—in our lives. Every cemetery, every funeral, is a warning—a reminder that "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Hebrews 9:27. Can we race on past the warning signs, to crash on the rocks below? Can we ignore the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who "was once offered to bear the sins of many"? Hebrews 9:28. Yes, we can. But—"know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." Ecclesiastes 11:9. We may seem to "get by" and "get away with it" for a time, but never forget that "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Ecclesiastes 12:14.