ONE bright summer morning, there could be seen at the garden gate on an old farm, a little girl on her way to the barn yard; but just as she got to the gate what should she meet but two geese and their little goslings; they hissed and hissed at her, as. much as to say, You must not touch our babies. The little girl had no intention of touching them, and would have been afraid to go near those big geese, but they could not understand that, so they hissed at her to keep her away. As she managed to get to one side, she could pass them, and then the geese were quiet again, and no doubt felt they had accomplished a great deal in protecting their little ones.
The love of the parent, whether of many of the lower animals or the human family, is very great, and in many instances have put themselves in the danger, and suffered so as to screen their children.
I learned of a mother, whose little girl was in danger of being burned, and she ran through the fire and got badly burned about the face and head, but she saved her baby. She suffered with those burns for a long time, and finally they were healed, but they left terrible scars, and no one liked much to look at her. Her little girl grew up to be a big lady, beautiful, and attractive, and she was ashamed of her mother, and did not like to let people know she was her mother, because she was so disfigured.
I think I hear some of my readers say, What a shame that she should have felt so, seeing her mother had loved her so much as to be burned in order to save her. She should have loved her mother all the more, and been glad to tell others of her mother’s great love.
There is a love that surpasses the love of a parent, and that is the love of God. He has “so loved. the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He knew the danger we were in, and that it would mean that we would be banished from His presence for ever and ever, and the Lord Jesus—His Son was willing to come and take our place as poor helpless sinners. M any of my readers do believe in Him, and let me ask such, Are you ashamed to confess Him before others and tell them of His love and what He has done and that, now, He has wounds in His hands and His side, and is as a lamb that has been slain? Or are you like the girl who was ashamed to confess her mother before others? If it was wrong of her to be ashamed of her mother after such great protecting love as she had shown, what a shame it would be if any of you would be ashamed to confess the Lord Jesus, after He so loved you, as even, to die under the judgment of God on Calvary’s cross for you a sinner.
May the little incident of the geese and their protecting love for their little ones, cause you to think of the greater love of God giving His Son, and of the love of that Son to be willing to come from the glory and die in your place; and then seek not to be like the young lady with her mother, but confess the Lord Jesus and delight in doing so.
Messages of God’s Love 12/13/1908