A jet cargo plane zoomed in for a landing at busy New York’s Kennedy Airport. It was planning to stop only long enough for refueling before taking off again.
In the big cargo hold of the plane, among the countless boxes and crates were a dozen animal cages with five macaque monkeys in each cage, which makes 60 monkeys in all.
When the plane came to a standstill, one particular little monkey got very busy. He grabbed onto the bars of his cage with his slender fingers and started shaking the bars with all the might his 15-pound body could muster. He shook those bars to the right, and then he shook them to the left. He pulled them up, and then he pushed them down. He shook them till his hands got tired, and then he shook them with his feet. He struggled with those bars, making them rattle and clatter... and finally the gate opened. The monkey quickly squeezed through. After he got out, the gate sprung closed again.
When the other monkeys, all 59 of them, saw their friend free, they started screeching and screaming, clapping their hands, and spinning around in circles. In their screeching they seemed to be calling to their escaped friend, “Escape out of this place! Run, and don’t let anyone catch you ever again! You can do it!”
Encouraged by all the clamor, the monkey scurried out of the cargo hold and into the cabin of the plane. Rushing down the aisle and screaming as he went, he took the men working there by surprise. They were so shocked they ran off the plane. Then the pilot and copilot heard the commotion. They came to see what the problem was. They too were startled by the monkey and locked themselves in the cockpit. The tiny monkey must have felt like a mighty conqueror for a while with all the humans running away from him.
An animal expert working at the airport was called to the airplane. John was a big man with a beard and a rosy, smiling face. When he heard all the ruckus one tiny monkey had caused, he chuckled.
The first thing John did was to take the pilot and copilot off the plane. Then he turned his attention to catching the escaped prisoner. The only problem was the little escapee didn’t want to be caught.
What John thought would be an easy catch turned into an energetic game of hide-and-seek. The monkey would stick his bald head out of one spot as if to say to John, “Here I am, you can’t catch me!” Then before John could catch him he would find another hiding place. This game went on for an hour and a half.
Then something caught the monkey’s attention, and his curiosity got the better of him. He spotted all the colorful dials and interesting levers and buttons in the cockpit. He stopped to play with them.
John saw his chance and nabbed him as the monkey sat on the instrument panel right between the pilot’s and copilot’s seats, fingering the levers and buttons as though he knew how to fly the airplane.
Later that day, John posed for a picture with the monkey in his lap and told reporters, “He’s one sharp little cookie... but, no, I don’t think he was trying to fly the plane back home.”
You know, that monkey might have been “a sharp little cookie,” but there are limits to what monkeys can do. It would have been impossible for him to start the giant engines of the 747 and fly it home to the Philippine Islands. And there are some things which are impossible for people to do, whether children or grownups. It is impossible for anyone to save his own soul. And yes, your soul must be saved if you want to be in heaven with the Lord Jesus.
Since there can be no sin in heaven, it is impossible for you to go to heaven just as you are, for Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23) says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” And it is impossible to go to heaven by earning your way there, thinking your good works might cancel out your sins. Ephesians 2:8,98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9) says, “By grace are ye saved through faith... not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Still, there is a way to be saved, but it must be God’s way. “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:2727And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. (Mark 10:27). “The Father [God] sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” 1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14). God’s way of salvation is to come as a helpless sinner to the Lord Jesus who is the only Saviour of sinners and accept His loving offer of sins forgiven. It is impossible to be saved any other way — as impossible as that monkey piloting the 747 by himself.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6). Will you trust the Lord Jesus? He alone can save — the only possible way.
ML-11/29/1987