Grandpa Tom was so happy to be retired from his job. For many years he had gone to the office where he worked hard every day. Now he could stay at home and enjoy doing the things he had always wanted to do. He started each day off by reading two chapters in his Bible. Then he usually spent several hours working in his yard and cleaning up things in his garage. Grandpa Tom liked to keep anything that he thought he might need someday.
One day, his daughter Debbie noticed that he had a ladder with several cracks and a broken step. She knew this was very unsafe, so she carried it out to the trash. Now, what did Grandpa Tom do but go out and carry the old ladder right back into the garage!
Grandpa thought that throwing the ladder away was wasteful; he planned to repair it and make it as good as new. But his daughter knew that the ladder should be thrown away or be repaired immediately, because it was dangerous to use.
Grandpa had a good plan in saving the ladder, but he forgot about safety. We often think our thoughts are right and forget to consider God’s view of our thoughts. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 55:8, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” How important it is to have the Lord’s thoughts as found in His Word, the Bible, and to walk in His ways. If we think our own thoughts and walk in our own way, it will lead to everlasting death. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12. But God has a much better way for us and that is the way of salvation through accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31.
One day in the fall, Grandpa Tom was out puttering around in the garage while Debbie was fixing lunch. Because he did not come in when she called him for lunch, she walked out to the garage to call again.
What a sad sight met Debbie’s eyes! The old, cracked ladder was in broken pieces, and Grandpa Tom was beside it on the floor.
Debbie quickly ran to get help from a neighbor, who then called for an ambulance to come. In just a short time Grandpa Tom was in the hospital where the doctors and nurses worked hard to save his life.
It was several months before Grandpa Tom was able to come home from the hospital. Even though he is at home now, he will never be well enough to do any of the things he once loved to do.
If only Grandpa Tom had left that old ladder in the trash where it belonged, he would not have had the terrible accident—an accident he will suffer from as long as he lives. Grandpa Tom’s thoughts of saving the old ladder were really not wrong, but he will suffer from the results of those thoughts the rest of his life.
Are your thoughts about God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, right thoughts? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour? If you do not, you will suffer forever in that awful place called hell. “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15. For those who have right thoughts about God, who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, eternity will be “fullness of joy” and “pleasures for evermore.” Psalms 16:11.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
ML-08/28/1983