This week we want to tell you ather alligator story, as it was told to us by a missionary from South America. This happened down on the plains of Venezuela.
There was a boy down there who knew the Lord Jesus as his Saviour, and he had confessed Him fearlessly before others. One day he went down to the river in the early morning to get water for the house. Unknown to him an alligator was lying in the water observing him. Watching his opportunity, the alligator suddenly leaped on the boy and gripping him by the leg, carried him into the river.
There was no one nearby to help the poor boy, and in his desperation he cried out, “Lord Jesus, save me!” The alligator, for some outwardly unexplainable reason, dropped the boy. The little fellow clambered out of the river and ran to the house, with the marks of the alligator’s teeth on his thigh.
We know why the alligator dropped him; for surely it was God who answered the prayer of the poor boy in his desperate need. His Word tells us, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry.” Psa. 34:1515The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. (Psalm 34:15). He also says in Psalm 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15), “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”
What a wonderful thing it is, dear young friends, to belong to Christ. Those who come to Him as guilty sinners, desiring to be saved, have their sins put away forever. He makes them His own, for they are bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:2020For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20)); and nothing can happen to them but what He allows for their good and blessing. He might have allowed the alligator to carry off that dear boy, but then for him “sudden death would be sudden glory.” He tells us in His Word that for the child of God, “to die is gain,” and “to depart, and to be with Christ;... is far better.” Phil. 1:21, 2321For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23). Again, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in. Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1). But He had other plans for His young servant, and so He spared him that he might live and witness for Him to others.
O to be just a sign-post pointing to Christ! If you, who read these lines, do not yet know this precious Saviour, we would point you to Him dying for you on the cross of Calvary.
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
Oh then come, and drink the refreshing streams of God’s grace. Rejoice in the sunshine of His love, and set out today on the road to heaven.
A Christian soldier was once asked how he was converted, and he answered: “God seemed to say to me, ‘Halt! Attention! Right about face! March!’ And so I did just what He told me. I turned around, and ever since I have been marching on to glory.”
ML 11/08/1959