Everyone was excited that day in the schoolhouse in the small prairie town. Just before noon, an early winter storm had swept in with snow and a howling wind that whipped about the eaves, causing weird moanings and buzzing vibrations. Surely school would be dismissed soon so that the buses could get the farmers’ children safely home!
Yes, it wasn’t long before the buses were lining up in front of the school. Anxious-faced teachers hustled the children out and onto the buses as the wind tore at their coats. Was it even now too late? The weather report warned of blizzard conditions.
Jud Adams had a route out on the open prairie. Soon it would be heavily drifted with snow. If only that wind would let up! He did his expert best, but before long his bus “No. 4" was stuck in a bank of snow. All his efforts to free the bus were in vain. The storm was almost unbelievable—heavy snowfall, extreme cold and violent wind. Help must come, and soon, or they would all freeze to death. Jud left twelve-year-old Allan Simpson in charge with instructions to keep the motor running for heat from the heater. Then brave Jud started out for help.
Allan did his best to keep the younger children from worrying. He told stories, comforted the frightened ones, teased and joked endlessly to keep the children’s spirits up. The bitter cold wind was driven into the old bus in hundreds of tiny places. At last the motor coughed and stopped. Allan could not get it to start again. What was he to do now? Allan collected books and papers. In the driver’s tin box, he found some matches. All the children had little tin lunch pails. He emptied some of these and crammed in crumpled papers. He kept several little fires burning as long as he could. Hours had gone by, yet no help came. The icy cold was reaching in to the little ones who, one by one, had quit crying and wanted only to go to sleep. Allan knew they would die if they went to sleep. Up and down the aisle he went, deliberately picking fights—slapping, pinching, setting one against another—anything to make them move and stay awake!
How his brave heart leaped with joy when at last help came! The children were all saved alive, but their friend Jud, the bus driver, died in the snow. When the bus was late, anxious parents sent out the snowplow and tractor.
You will be happy to know that Allan received a unique and wonderful reward for his wise and brave part. President Hoover heard of the young hero and sent Allan a personal invitation to visit him at the White House. Allan received congratulations and a “well done” from the Commander-in-Chief of the United States!
Would you some day like to have such a reward, a “well done, good and faithful servant,” from the very Lord of heaven and earth? To every true Christian Jesus Christ is Commander-in-Chief. But can you truthfully say that you are one of His very own? The children on the bus had to be kept awake and moving in order to escape death by freezing.
Sometimes we must be shaken up and shocked into knowing that we are sinners ready to perish. Once we are awakened, then we can be rescued from eternal death. God says again and again in the Bible that sinners cannot come into heaven without having their sins washed away by the blood of the Lord Jesus. He also says, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12). Jud Adams was willing, but not able to save his busload of children. But Jesus Christ is "... able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” Hebrews 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25).
ML-11/08/1981