Many water towers make excellent landmarks for knowing when to get off at a highway exit or for finding your way around town. Many of these water tanks are higher than the tree tops and can be seen for miles. If you wanted to use your imagination, you could say that some look like giant golf balls sitting on top of very long legs. Other water tanks look like giant eggs, sitting on top of a giant egg holder. And some are even designed to look like farm silos. Many of them are painted white, gray or light blue so they don’t draw attention, but others are painted or designed on purpose to catch your attention.
In Gaffney, South Carolina, their water tank stands tall and is painted to look like a giant peach. This is because they grow and sell tons and tons of peaches. In Plant City, Florida, they have a water tower that is painted to look like a giant strawberry. Can you guess what fruit they grow in and around this town? Kirtland, Ohio, has a giant water tank that is disguised to look like a grain silo. The tank sits right in the middle of a very busy farm. There is an impossible-to-miss, enormous water tank in Alabama that is painted in bright red and white candy stripes. Other water tanks have been painted to match the scenery near them. Oak Harbor, Washington, has a tank painted with pines trees. It blends in perfectly with its surroundings.
These tanks are all painted with an expensive, high-quality, oil-based paint that resists fading and chipping from the sun, wind and rain. It can cost thousands of dollars to repaint these tanks. In Frazier Park, California, someone had spray-painted big, blue, ugly letters on their town’s water tank, which was painted white. The letters read “MEEKO” and “TAZ.” Then someone covered those words by spray-painting “CROCK” and “LUCKY” on top of them. Finally, in a third act of vandalism, someone spray-painted “J ROCK” on the side of the tank.
Company officials from the Frazier Park Public Utility District were very concerned. They had been planning to use their customers’ water-payment money to replace water pipes that had been installed in 1926. Money that had been set aside for this project now had to be used to repaint the water tank. Having no idea who was spray-painting their tank, they had the local newspaper print a story, asking the people of Frazier Park for help in finding the person responsible. The penalty for graffiti vandalism can be up to a year in jail or the state prison and up to a $50,000 fine.
No doubt the person who was doing the spray-painting thought it was a lot of fun. When they didn’t get caught the first time, they did it again. After the second time, they became even more confident that they were getting away with it. Boys and girls, sin is just like that. At first, it can seem like a lot of “fun.” If we are not corrected or caught, we think we are getting away with it and become even more determined to continue in our sins. But God, who is all-knowing, says, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:2323But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23)). What exactly does that mean? It means that there is nothing hidden from God. He knows every thought and everything that we have ever done or said. We will not be able to hide even one sin from Him. Because God is holy and pure, He cannot accept sin into His presence or into His home in heaven.
But God, who loves us and is not willing that any should perish, sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. He shed His precious blood on Calvary’s cross, dying for us and rising from the dead on the third day. He offered Himself up, a perfect sacrifice to God in our place! Today, God is offering you His free salvation, if you will receive it. “It thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)). When we accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He will help us to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:1313He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)).
Just two weeks after the story appeared in the local newspaper, a 22-year-old man was arrested. Two concerned citizens had called the number given to say they knew who “J ROCK” was. When he was questioned, police discovered even more evidence against him—he had the letters “J ROCK” tattooed on his left arm. There could be no doubt that they had caught the guilty person responsible for damaging the Frazier Park water tank!
The Bible tells us that if we do not receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior and accept God’s free gift of salvation, we too will be caught in our sins. One day, we must all stand before God. We are told that the books will be opened, and “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:1515And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)).
Boys and girls and grown-ups too, has God written your name in His book of life?
ML-11/25/2018