We live on a small lake that has lots of trees and bushes on the other side. Down below us, there is another lake with an island on it. This all makes an attractive habitat for Canada geese and mallard ducks.
In the spring, when you can find them, it is interesting to watch the geese and ducks nesting. The geese are not too careful about hiding their nests, but the ducks take great care in hiding theirs. They seem to know that raccoons are very clever in finding the nests and stealing the eggs. It is a wise mother duck that will take great care to find a good hiding spot. Her eggs will not be stolen, and she will be rewarded with a hatched-out brood of ducklings. What a pleasant sight to see the new family swimming with the proud mother in the lead and the little yellow ducklings swimming in a straight line behind her.
Ducklings have many enemies: foxes, raccoons and cats prowl the shore, birds of prey fly overhead and snapping turtles swim under the water. Sometimes we hear the loud quacking of a mother duck and fear that one or more of her brood is in trouble.
One day I heard a loud quacking down at the end of the dam where the overflow pipe is. This overflow consists of a large upright pipe, two feet tall, with a six-inch, horizontal pipe at the bottom to take the drainage away when the lake overflows into it in rainy weather.
An upset mother duck and her young were all quacking loudly while swimming next to the overflow pipe. They swam away when they saw me coming. Then I heard the pitiful peeping! A duckling had fallen into the empty overflow pipe and was trapped at the bottom. I reached down to lift the duckling out, but as my hand got near him, he disappeared in the six-inch drain. When I backed away, he would pop out of the drain. I tried the rescue several times, but that duckling was so afraid of me he would run into that dark drain every time.
Then I had an idea. I ran to the woodpile and found a wide, flat board. I crept up to the overflow pipe, and as quickly as I could, I dropped the board down, covering the drain before the duckling could run into it. Now I had my prize! What a peeping the little fellow made when my hand closed around him. I quickly lifted him out and released him into the water, and he must have broken a speed record swimming to his mother!
How like this lost, frightened duckling are unsaved people. They are afraid of God, thinking He is just waiting to catch them so He can punish them. Perhaps they have never heard or read that “God is love” (1 John 4:88He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8)). “God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-43For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3‑4)).
Just as the duckling was afraid of me and did not know I wanted to save him, people who are afraid of God resist His efforts to save them. God “the Father 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)). Christ Jesus, God’s Son, gave His life on the cross for you and me. He shed His blood so that we can have our sins washed away. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). “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)).
How happy that mother duck was to have her little lost duckling again, and how happy the heart of the Saviour is when a boy or girl or man or woman comes to Him to be saved from their sins. If you refuse Him, your life will end in despair - an eternity in the lake of fire. Will you let Him save you?
ML-07/22/2001